Dr. Eugene Dewey Byrd Jr., dentist and American Kennel Club official, dies

Jacques Kelly, Baltimore Sun
·3 min read

Dr. Eugene Dewey Byrd Jr., a dentist who officiated at American Kennel Club events, died of heart failure Feb. 22 at his daughter’s Windsor Mill home. He was 81.

Born in Baltimore and raised in Turner Station and East Baltimore, he was the son of Eugene D. Byrd Sr., a dentist, and Mabel Elizabeth Leewood, a Baltimore City Schools teacher.

He was a 1960 Baltimore City College graduate, a punter for the football team and a lacrosse player.

“In early childhood he learned the values of love, respect, faith, caring and family traditions,” said his daughter, Cimmon Byrd. “The family was so close knit that he considered his first cousins — Dewey, Gwendolyn, Richard, Beverley and Carl, to be his brothers and sisters. He spent hours playing, eating meals cooked by their grandmother Mamie or watching the trains with their grandfather, Piety.”

He was a member of East Baltimore’s Waters African Methodist Episcopal Church and later embraced the Baha’i’ Faith. He most recently attended Union Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church.

While attending Morgan State University as a biology major, he met his future wife, Laura Phillips, while they were pledging Greek organizations. They married in 1964 at St. Edward’s Roman Catholic Church.

Dr. Byrd was a member of Morgan’s intramural basketball, baseball and track teams and a football punter.

He was a member of the Omega Psi Phi fraternity and remained active in the Pi Omega chapter. In 1962, he was among the fraternity brothers who helped organize Malcolm X’s visit to Morgan’s campus to talk about civil rights.

During his senior year at Morgan, he sold Good Humor ice cream and operated a truck throughout Baltimore.

He was a graduate of the University of Maryland School of Dentistry and joined his father’s practice in Ashburton. He retired in 2021.

“For more than 45 years, my father’s patients referred to him as the ‘gentle dentist,'” said his daughter. “He was keenly aware of how nervous people were to come to him to have dental work done.”

She said her father explained the process and ensured patients were well educated on oral care.

“In many instances, he was not only a dentist to his patients, but he became their friend,” she said. “They routinely discussed their life challenges, families, matters of importance and mutual interest.”

During the 1980s, Dr. Byrd took up dog training after a conversation with family friend Pinkney Howell, who mentioned there was a dog training group in Vienna, Dorchester County.

Dr. Byrd, who owned four Chesapeake Bay Retrievers at one time, joined the North American Hunting Retriever Association.

“It was game on from that point,” said his daughter.

Often called Doc or Gene, he also participated in Retriever Hunting Tests, which evaluates a dog’s ability to fetch things under a variety of conditions.

His first retriever was named Omar.

After successfully completing numerous hunt tests, Dr. Byrd decided to train to be a hunt test judge. His dogs Doc and Sassy are in the Master National Retriever Club hall of fame.

“Handlers use whistles and hand signals to direct the master hunter through marsh, water and fields to sniff out the scent of the bird to be retrieved,” his daughter said.

Related Articles

He was a longtime judge and hunt test handler. In 2001, he judged the Master National Hunt Test in Oklahoma.

He was a member of the Keystone Retriever Club, the Del-Bay Retriever Club and the Maryland Retriever Club.

He was an avid reader and enjoyed answering “Jeopardy” questions.

Survivors include his wife of 59 years, Laura Phillips Byrd, a retired Mergenthaler Vocational-Technical High School business department chair; a daughter, Cimmon Byrd, of Windsor Mill; a brother, Dr. Joel Piety Byrd, of Los Angeles; and two grandsons. A daughter, Ashleigh, died in infancy. His son, Christopher Byrd, died in 2018.

Services were held Wednesday at Union Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Randallstown.