Gerald Lyda

Who was Gerald Lyda?

Gerald Lyda was an American cattle rancher, contractor and developer prominent in the state of Texas.

Lyda was reared in Burnet County at the edge of the Texas Hill Country in Central Texas. His grandfather was Gideon Paloris Lyda who worked as foreman on Thomas Lyons & Angus Campbell's famous LC Ranch headquartered near Silver City, New Mexico. Separated from his family at age 10 by his mother's death and the foreclosure on the family farm, Lyda worked for various ranches throughout the Texas Hill Country where he could be close to horses, cattle and ranching life.

During World War II, Lyda worked for the railroad, but soon became a carpenter with a large El Paso-based general contractor. He worked with his tools on military projects throughout Texas, Utah and Colorado. Returning to Texas between construction jobs, Lyda broke horses, worked as a ranch hand, occasionally competed in saddle bronc riding at small town rodeos and learned the art of making saddles from legendary rodeo producer and businessman, T. C. "Buck" Steiner of Austin.

Lyda married Randa Jean Lyda and moved to Nixon, Texas to manage the Evans Ranch. Times were hard. To support his wife and two young boys, he quit cowboying in 1947 and hired on as a carpenter with Farnsworth & Chambers, a large building contractor with headquarters in Houston. With the support and encouragement of supervisor/mentor H. Alvin Lott, Lyda earned a reputation for being an innovative, cost-conscious project superintendent who could deliver projects on time and under budget. In late 1954, the 31-year old project superintendent was transferred to San Antonio to build the massive Wilford Hall Hospital project at Lackland Air Force Base. After completing the hospital on time and within budget, he was promoted to Area Superintendent.