Those were the words of John Quitman Hyde IV: former Lafayette police chief, a unique raconteur, a fixture presiding at Red's and a personality that wouldn't quit.
The chief's life ended last week at the age of 72. He spent the last 24 years battling the limitations and occasional setbacks from a stroke he suffered in 1981. In spite of communication challenges and restrictions on movement, he lived his life to the fullest.
Quite often it took a gentle game of charades to figure out what he was trying to say, but it worked. He knew what he wanted to say, and he prevailed. On occasional visits at his home it was a ritual to go through albums of pictures, boxes of mementos, newspaper clippings, and plaques and pictures on the wall. Each visit required repetition of the process, but it was great being able to relish past experiences, especially those we shared. And many laughs came with them.
When I came into office in June 1980, I got to know the chief and engage his strong personality before his stroke. He was full of excitement at the prospect of running a police department. Sitting across the desk from him, I heard his ideas of what he wanted to accomplish for the Lafayette Police Department. There was good reason to be optimistic about his goals. After all, the chief had a highly commendable background of law enforcement and investigation. He was charged up and ready to go, and he did a great job. Unfortunately, it only lasted 14 months.
The stroke left him paralyzed on one side with very little ability to speak. With therapy and determination he persevered and established a unique way to communicate. And within that communication, his strong and vibrant personality was intact. A lesser man would shy away from society, but not the chief. He made his presence known and felt.
He had strong family support over the years as well as a long list of friends who enjoyed a friendly joust and/or encounter. Being a friend of the chief was a privilege, and it was fun. He and I saw eye to eye in the area of politics, and in that respect communication seemed easy. Most all comments came in pairs of words. Mention Ronald Reagan, and the comment was, "good man, good man." He probably knew the names of most people who would stop to talk with him, but he just made it simple and called everybody "baby." He had nicknames for everybody he liked and those he didn't like, and sometimes an "s.o.b." might slip in.
John Q. Hyde was a "good man, good man" in the truest sense of the word. He was a husband and father, a true family man. He was a law enforcement officer, something he was proud of. And he was the chief ' leaving an indelible print on the city of Lafayette and the people with whom he came in contact.
So long, chief, and may you finally rest in peace.
MAY 24 Blogger Robert Mann posts this entry about the Baton Rouge Chamber's recent report on Louisiana's higher education system. It's critical to economic development, and yet our system is facing a "funding crisis" with no way to resolve it, the report says. The Chamber says control of tuition and fees must be returned to the higher ed governing boards.
MAY 24 Here's a NBC33 story about Tyrann Mathieu. He has signed with the Arizona Cardinals, inking a $3 million, four-year deal. He gets a signing bonus of $265K, but gets another, larger bonus if he doesn't get cut from the team for doing drugs. The deal reportedly includes mandatory tests and meetings for the player.
MAY 24 Jarvis DeBerry posts here about the redonkulus rhetoric that would have us believe NOLA is a safe city with a murder problem. Maybe the city's crime stats don't compare with its murder stats because you can't manipulate a murder, he says: a dead body's a dead body. It just doesn't make sense, he says, and his readers agree: a poll asks if they believe the city is safe, and more than 90 percent say no.
MAY 24 Jindal administration officials announced Thursday that the privatization of public health care is going to cost a lot more than they budgeted for, the Advocate reports here. "I'm so surprised," said no one. Anywhere. The cost they're projecting now is more than $1 billion - a lot more than the $626 million budgeted for it. And, it's more than it cost the state to operate those hospitals. So why are we doing this again?
MAY 24 Blogger CB Forgotston ridicules the recent PR campaign by the state GOP in the wake of a legislative auditor's request to both major parties. The GOP (apparently unaware that the Dems got the same request) started yammering about being targeted because it had "killed" a tax increase. CB finds that laughable, but it's also pretty funny that the GOP was comparing this episode to the IRS scandal (Because the President has so much to do with our state auditor. Right?).
MAY 24 Politico details some recent fund-raising efforts by Sen. David Vitter, which have raised the question of his future political plans. This time, it is a $5,000 per head "bayou weekend" that includes "Cajun cooking" and an all-caps "alligator hunt," the story reports. Funds raised go to a super PAC that can spend money to support Vitter in federal or state races, the story points out.
MAY 24 The pink building on Royal in the quarter was sold at a sheriff's sale Thursday, this Picayune story reports. An injunction that would have halted the sale wasn't enforced because the family failed to post a $150,000 bond, the story reports. So the owner of the mortgages on the building bought it, for nearly $7 million. Now the feuding family will have to negotiate with that company to get a lease on the building that has housed their business for close to 60 years.
MAY 23 This post in Louisiana Voice tells us about a bill by a Winnsboro lege that would require all public high school students to take at least one Course Choice online class in order to graduate. (What?) Blogger Tom Aswell says it's a monument to "waste and corruption," especially in light of the problems he's exposed with the program in recent weeks. Idaho had a similar program, but voters removed it by a 2-1 margin, Aswell says.
Most Read
in case you missed it
Subscribe to this comment's feed