George Dewey Clyde
George Dewey Clyde was a politician and served two terms as governor of the State of Utah. He was also an irrigation engineer and professor at Utah State University (then Utah State Agricultural College) for 22 years, serving as dean of the College of Engineering and Technology from 1936 to 1946, at which time he entered federal service as Chief of Irrigation Investigations for the U.S. Soil Conservation Service. While at the college during World War II, he directed various government programs, serving as administrator of the Civilian Pilot Training Program, the War Production Training Program, the Naval Radio Training Program, and the Army Specialized Training Program.
Professionally, he held administrative positions with the U.S. Soil Conservation from 1945 until 1953, when he was selected as director of the Utah Water and Power Board, the agency empowered by the legislature to fully develop the state’s water resources.
Clyde was elected governor in 1956 and began his service in January 1957. During his administration, he opposed the creation of Canyonlands National Park, concerned for the multi-use of the land, including grazing and mining rights. He is remembered for the groundbreaking of a new interstate highway and the construction of the University of Utah's Medical School. He also sought for increased state funding for schools, “however, when a committee he had named to investigate school needs recommended a $6 million increase in spending, Clyde rejected the report; teachers then staged a two-day walkout and the National Education Association, for the first time in its history, voted sanctions against an entire state.”[1]
His second term ended in January 1965 and he did not run for a third term.
After leaving office, Clyde resumed his engineering profession as a consultant. He died on April 2, 1972.
Clyde was born on July 21, 1898, in Springville, Utah. He earned his bachelor’s degree in agricultural engineering from Utah State University and his master’s from the University of California, Berkeley. He and his wife, Ora Packard, were the parents of five children.
