TAFP leader, Lubbock physician passes away

TAFP member Walter Hyde, Jr., M.D., passed away Sept. 18, 2011, at age 59. He practiced family medicine in the communities of Lubbock and Seminole, Texas, for 25 years. During this time he also served as a leader in TAFP, fulfilling appointments to several committees and commissions including the Commission on Health Care Services and Managed Care, and the Commission on Membership and Member Services.

Hyde was born on Sept. 25, 1951, in McAllen, Texas. He graduated from Round Rock High School in 1970 and went on to receive a bachelor’s degree in microbiology from the University of Texas at Austin. He was awarded his medical degree by the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio and completed a family medicine residency at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center in Lubbock, Texas.

Remembered as a dedicated father, grandfather, friend, and teacher, Hyde coached his son’s little league baseball team for years and supported his daughters in gymnastics and volleyball. He was a member of First Baptist Church of Lubbock, and previously served as an active deacon and religious education teacher at Bacon Heights Baptist Church. And he was an avid gardener of vegetable and flower gardens along with his wife.

He is survived by his wife, Vanesa; their children, Kelly Hyde and wife, Summer, Melanie Forbess and husband, David, and Mary Katherine Hyde and fiancé Tyler Hogan; grandchildren, Caedan Vaughan Hyde and Jonah Forbess; and brother, James Hyde.