Stuart Hyde

1923 - 2015

Stuart Hyde

He touched countless lives and wanted everyone to succeed in whatever endeavor made their lives meaningful.

Professor Stuart Hyde, who was kind and encouraging to anyone who he came in contact with, died this April 2015. One of his greatest accomplishments was founding and developing the Broadcast Communication Arts Department (BCA) at San Francisco State University, regarded as one of the most prestigious programs of its sort in the country.

Stuart was born in Fresno in 1923 to Anna and Henry Hyde. His wife of 63 years, Allie, a renowned Bay Area artist, passed away in 2012. He leaves behind three children: Stuart Jr., of Petaluma, John Hyde of San Leandro, Allison Hyde-Rosales of San Francisco, and four grandchildren: Sophia, Maxwell, Katy Rose and Emiliano Angel. Stuart is survived by his brother, Floyd, and was preceded in death by his brothers Delbert and Vernon. His parents were descendants of Germans who had migrated to Russia in the 1600s, subsequently immigrating to Fresno in the late 1800s. During World War I, his parents changed their name from Heidt to Hyde.

Stuart grew up in Fresno, California, and graduated from Fresno High School in June 1941. At the outset of World War II he worked at the Henry J. Kaiser shipyards in Richmond, California, later entering active service in the U.S. Navy, where he served as an officer for the duration of the war. Stuart was proud to have participated in the invasions of Iwo Jima and Okinawa on the USS Lowndes. Upon returning from the war, he attended the University of California at Los Angeles, where he received a B.A. in Theater Arts in 1948. After marrying Allie Bargum in 1949, he continued his studies, receiving a Master of Arts degree in Speech and Drama in 1950, and a Ph.D. in Dramatic Literature in 1953, both from Stanford University.

A talented educator and brilliant mentor to thousands of students throughout his long career, he taught at Stanford University, University of Southern California, and San Francisco City College before choosing to teach at San Francisco State University, where he would serve as Chairperson of the BCA Department for decades.

In 1964, devastated by the 16th St. Church bombing in Birmingham, Alabama, he made it a priority and a policy of BCA Department to recruit African American and other minority groups as professors and students into the program. In 1969 when San Francisco State was gripped by a student strike, he quelled a potential riot by delivering an eloquent speech encouraging the crowd to use non-violent methods of expression. Subsequently, he and his family would receive death threats for months from the radical group known as the Weather Underground. In 1970, he took on an additional challenge as a Communications teacher at San Quentin State Prison, and continued teaching there for 11 years. Being a pacifist, he considered sending his eldest son to Canada during the Viet Nam war.

Stuart profoundly influenced radio and television broadcasting in the Bay Area and beyond, through his years of teaching and in his leadership roles at San Francisco State. He authored widely used broadcasting textbooks, including "Radio and Television Announcing' and "Idea to Script". In 2012, Stuart was inducted into the Gold Circle National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Gold Circle recognizing more than 50 years of outstanding contributions to the broadcast community.

A memorial in honor of Stuart Hyde's life is planned for June.