Deborah Hyde, M.D.

1996 Honoree

Who would have thought that a little black girl from Mississippi would ever become a brain surgeon? Annie Belle Huff, Dr. Deborah Hyde's grandmother did. She always believed that her granddaughter was someone special. Dr. Hyde believes that this spirit continues to encourage, inspire and comfort her, as she goes about helping sick people to improve the quality of their lives.

As a child, Dr. Hyde had a zest for learning. While her friends asked for toys at Christmas, she requested a set of encyclopedia.

After graduation from high school in Laurel, Mississippi, she majored in biology at Tougaloo College in Mississippi and earned a master's degree in biology at Cleveland State University in Ohio.

Dr. Hyde began her medical education at Case Western Reserve Medical School in Cleveland, Ohio and interned for one year at the University Hospital. From 1 978 to 1982, she was a resident in neurosurgery at the same hospital and learned to perform surgery on the nerves in the spine, brain and body. This kind of surgery required a steady hand and thorough knowledge of the human body. For the next four years, she perfected her surgical skills in the Guthrie Clinic at the Robert Packer Hospital in Sayre, Pennsylvania.

In 1985, Dr. Hyde became one of 4,200 physicians certified by the American Board of Neurological Surgery. Of this number, about 60 are African-Americans and only four of them are women. One year later, she entered private practice in Los Angeles, California.

Many articles have been written about Dr. Hyde's surgical skill and significant contributions to her community. However, founding the Beacon of Hope Scholarship Foundation Inc., in 1991, was a major accomplishment of which she is very proud. This foundation raises money without corporate support to send one student from South Central, Los Angeles and one from Jones County, Mississippi to a historically black college for four years. The foundation also awards 5500 to a ninth grader who excels in science. "By assisting students in this way," she said, "I am putting into action my belief that with God's help one may climb and reach for the stars, pushing obstacles aside and seizing the hour."