B. Dexter Ryland
| Bert Dexter Ryland | |
| In office 1990 – June 28, 2005 | |
| Born | October 10, 1941 LaPorte, Indiana, USA |
|---|---|
| Died | June 28, 2005 (aged 63) Alexandria, Louisiana |
| Political party | Democrat |
| Spouse(s) | (1) Louise Lapeze Ryland
(2) Paulette Hébert Ryland |
| Relations | Malcolm Hébert (father-in-law) |
| Children | From first marriage:
John Dexter Ryland |
| Alma mater | Bolton High School
Louisiana College |
| Occupation | Attorney; Judge |
| Religion | United Methodist |
Bert Dexter Ryland (October 10, 1941 – June 28, 2005) was a Louisiana 9th Judicial District Court judge in Alexandria, Louisiana, having served from 1990 until his death in office.
A Democrat, Ryland won the "Division E" judgeship in his state's nonpartisan blanket primary held on November 6, 1990, by defeating a fellow Democrat, Bernard Kramer, a personal injury lawyer in Alexandria. Ryland received 18,602 votes (63 percent) from 108 precincts in Rapides Parish to Kramer's 10,799 (37 percent).[1] Ryland faced minimal or no opposition for his judgeship thereafter. Until 2019, all of the state district judges in the 9th district were Democrats.
In September 1996, Ryland was nominated for outstanding jurist by the Alexandria Bar Association. He died a few weeks after being hospitalized in the Rapides Medical Center with pneumonia. Earlier in the year, Ryland issued a controversial ruling regarding the selection by the board of trustees of the new president of Louisiana College, a Southern Baptist-affiliated institution in Pineville.
Background
Ryland was born to C. Bert Ryland and the former Velma Burns (1918–1999) in La Porte in northwestern Indiana. The Rylands afterwards returned to their home in Alexandria, and he graduated in 1959 from Bolton High School, located in the city's Garden District. Afterwards, Ryland, who went by his middle name "Dexter", attended Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. He received his Juris Doctor from the LSU Law Center in 1965, when he was the winner of the LSU Moot Court competition. In 1968, Ryland became president of the Young Lawyers Association. He was treasurer of the Alexandria Bar Association from 1974 to 1975 and a charter member of the Alexandria Young Lawyers Association.[2]
In 1987, he was inducted into the LSU "Law School Hall of Fame". Prior to his judicial election, Ryland was the first assistant district attorney for Rapides Parish from 1985 to 1990.[2] He had served earlier as assistant city attorney for Pineville during the administration of then Mayor Floyd Smith. Afterwards, Ryland was assistant city attorney and then city attorney for Alexandria. Ryland was a member of the Exchange Club, Masonic Lodge and Shriners and was an avid outdoorsman and hunter.
[[==Louisiana College case, 2005==
On March 18, 2005, Judge Ryland upheld the actions of the Louisiana College trustees when they elected the theologically conservative, Joe Aguillard, a former school superintendent in Beauregard Parish, as the new president to succeed the retiring Dr. Rory Lee. [3][4]
The dispute, brought forward in a suit by former LC faculty members, centered upon the election process used by the trustees. LC by-laws provided that a committee was to be appointed to review candidates and to make a recommendation to the trustees. The committee recommended Malcolm Beryl Yarnell, III, of the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, who subsequently received an offer from the college. Yarnell and the trustees never reached an agreement on contract terms. As a result, the trustees expanded the selection committee from nine to seventeen members.[5] Yarnell was first considered, but he bowed out considering "governance issues" at Louisiana College.[6]
The change shifted the composition of the committee, which then nominated Aguillard as a candidate for the presidency. Aguillard was supported by the LC trustee faction which favored a move toward theological conservatism. He was, however, unacceptable to the LC faculty, which voted 52-12 against his appointment and also issued a vote of no confidence in the trustees. Aguillard subsequently resigned as president in 2014, amid campus controversies.
Judge Ryland rejected the first two arguments in opposition to the lawsuit: that the plaintiffs lacked standing and that the matter was outside state jurisdiction because it involved the exercise of religious freedom under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. Judge Ryland agreed that the college had not followed the procedures outlined in its by-laws, but he concluded that the by-laws did not explicitly preclude nominations from the floor at the trustees meeting. The judge also noted that the by-laws did not require the trustees to accept the committee nomination.
In oral arguments, Ryland said that LC, which he attended in his early years, "needed a president of the college, and they needed one fast." The by-laws specifically provided that the committee could not be reconstituted until after the new president was in office, clearly indicating that the nomination by the committee stand. By permitting nominations from the floor, Judge Ryland permitted the committee to be effectively reconstituted, albeit at the last moment. Consequently, Judge Ryland's conclusion that the committee structure is not inconsistent with floor nominations strikes us as being a construction that simply can’t be reconciled with the notion of a committee that can’t be altered once it is created.
Those opposed to Aguillard's accession to the LC presidency contended that Judge Ryland’s decision demonstrates why attention to detail is critical in the drafting of institutional by-laws. The opponents said that boards should draft a charter for each appointed committee, with itemization of its jurisdiction, duties, and powers.
Plaintiffs, represented by the Alexandria attorney Jay Bolen, appealed to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals in Lake Charles, but the court posthumously upheld Judge Ryland's decision in April 2006, nearly a year after his death.
Death and family
Memorial services for Judge Ryland were held on July 1, 2005, at Our Lady of Prompt Succor Roman Catholic Church in Alexandria. He was cremated.
Survivors included his second wife, Paulette Hébert Ryland (born December 23, 1952) of Alexandria; their children, Clifton Bert Ryland, Melicia Soileau Ryland, and Amelia Marydell Ryland; and three children from a previous marriage to Louise Lapeze of Baton Rouge — John Dexter Ryland and wife, Carrie, of Alexandria, Robert Garnett Ryland and wife, Irina, of Silver Spring, Maryland, and Julie Elaine Ryland Prender and husband, Joel B. Prender of Dallas, Texas. He was survived by a brother, Rhett Robert Ryland and a sister, Sonya Dell Ryland Millican, both of Baton Rouge. He was survived by his three grandchildren, Isabelle Burnum Ryland, Catherine Garnett Ryland, and Andrew Dexter Ryland. Ryland was preceded in death by his second father-in-law, Malcolm Hébert, an engineer and businessman who served as the last elected Alexandria streets and parks commissioner.
Rebel Garnett Ryland (born April 22, 1953), an attorney in Columbia in Caldwell Parish died in 2005, eighteen days before his older brother, Judge Ryland. Rebel Ryland had practiced law for twenty-five years, much of that time in the firm of the late Governor John J. McKeithen. Like his brother, Rebel Ryland was also a graduate of Bolton High School and the LSU Law School. Rebel Ryland died of Lou Gehrig's disease.
References
- ↑ Louisiana Secretary of State, Election Returns: Rapides Parish, November 6, 1990.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 In Memoriam: 9th JDC Judge B. Dexter Ryland. lasc.org. Retrieved on June 7, 2014.
- ↑ "Alumnus of the Year: Rory Lee", Mississippi College Alumni Magazine Winter 2012. mc.edu. Retrieved on July 30, 2013.
- ↑ "Dr. Rory Lee," Baptistchildrensvillage.com, accessed July 29, 2013.
- ↑ Malcolm Yarnell. Swbts.edu. Retrieved on July 29, 2013.
- ↑ Leigh Guidry (March 18, 2013). Louisiana College president's future in question when trustees meet. Alexandria Town Talk. Retrieved on July 27, 2013.
