Drury Sherrod

Drury Ridgway Sherrod III, 82, of Pasadena, CA and Santa Fe, NM, died peacefully in Maui on November 13, 2025. Dru was born in Dallas, TX on February 7, 1943, the only child of Drury R. Sherrod Jr. and Juanita (Manning) Sherrod.

Dru attended Woodrow Wilson High School in Dallas and graduated from Southern Methodist University in 1965, where he received the M award, the highest award given to a student. He went on to earn an M.A. from the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins and a PhD from Stanford University. Dru taught psychology at Hamilton College in upstate New York and the Claremont Colleges in California before forming Mattson and Sherrod, Inc. jury research and trial strategy consulting firm with Larry Mattson in 1988.

He is the author of a textbook on social psychology and more than thirty articles on psychology, jury behavior, attribution theory and the effects of environmental stress on human behavior. Dru wrote a recently republished textbook chapter on close male relationships and is author of the 2019 book, "The Jury Crisis: What's Wrong with Jury Trials and How We Can Save Them." He was a frequent speaker on trial dynamics and juries in America to a variety of audiences, including college classes, law firms, bar associations, legal conferences, professional associations and groups interested in law and the social sciences.

Dru was a beloved friend of many, with relationships nurtured and sustained over many decades. He was valued for his wry sense of humor, agile word play, aesthetic sensibilities, and dedication to those he loved.

Dru suffered the profound losses of his closest friend, Bert Moore, in 2015 and then his life-partner, Arden Reed, in 2017. He is survived by stepson Jonathan Reed (Jeffrey Dodd), godson Matthew Moore (Maichi Ho) and close family Anita Comptois, Lynne Kirk, Anne Kirk and Kory Kirk. His companion Robert Young accompanied him in the last years of his life and was with him at the end.

Memorial services will be held in 2026.