B. Dexter Ryland
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Bert Dexter Ryland (October 10, 1941 - June 28, 2005) was a state Ninth Judicial District Court judge in Alexandria, Louisiana, having served from 1990 until his death.
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 Baptist-affiliated institution in Pineville.
A Democrat, Ryland won the "Division E" judgeship in his state's jungle primary held on November 6, 1990, by defeating Bernard Kramer, a personal injury lawyer in Alexandria and also a Democrat. Ryland received 18,602 votes (63 percent) from 108 precincts in Rapides Parish to Kramer's 10,799 (37 percent). Ryland faced minimal or no opposition for his judgeship thereafter. All of the state judgeships in Rapides Parish are held by Democrats.
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[edit] Early years and education
Ryland was born to C. Bert Ryland and the former Velma Burns (1918-1999) in La Porte in northwestern Indiana. The Rylands thereafter moved to Alexandria, and he graduated from Bolton High School in the city's Garden District in 1959. Thereafter, Ryland, who went by his middle name "Dexter", attended Louisiana College and Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. He received his Juris Doctor from LSU 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.
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 (1985-1990).
He had served earlier as assistant city attorney for Pineville during the administration of then Mayor Floyd W. Smith, Jr. Thereafter, he 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 hunter and outdoorsman.
[edit] The 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 W. Aguillard (Ed.D), a former school superintendent in Beauregard Parish, as the new president to succeed the retiring Dr. Rory Lee.
The dispute, brought forward in a suit by former LC faculty members, was over 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 Yarnell of the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, 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.
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.
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 committee's nomination not be tampered with. By permitting nominations from the floor, Judge Ryland has effectively 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, but the court posthumously upheld Judge Ryland's decision in April 2006.
[edit] Ryland's last rites
Ryland was cremated. Memorial services were held on July 1, 2005, at Our Lady of Prompt Succor Roman Catholic Church in Alexandria. He was survived by his wife, Paulette Hebert Ryland (born 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, Robert Garnett Ryland, and Julie Elaine Ryland Prender.
Eighteen days before his own death, Judge Ryland's younger brother, Rebel Garnett Ryland (born 1953), an attorney in Columbia in Caldwell Parish died. Rebel Ryland had practiced law for 25 years, much of that time in the firm of the late Governor John McKeithen. Like his brother Dexter, Rebel Ryland was a graduate of Bolton High School and the LSU Law School. He died of Lou Gehrig's disease.
