Obituary of Sheila Hyatt

~Long-time Denver resident and beloved community member Sheila K. Hyatt passed away November 8th, 2017, in Denver after a long battle with pancreatic cancer. Sheila was born March 13, 1950, in St. Louis, MO. She graduated University City High School in St. Louis, earned her BS at Miami University of Ohio and her JD at Washington University Law School in St. Louis. Sheila married Judge Robert S. Hyatt (Ret) on March 17, 1974. The two moved from Missouri to Colorado in 1979 after falling in love with the beautiful Rocky Mountains and the Colorado way of life. She and Bob loved hiking the mountain trails with their dogs, children and grandchildren. Sheila was a professor at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law for 38 years and was a highly regarded expert in matters of Colorado Law including Civil Procedure and Evidence law as well as Gender and the Law, which she introduced to the D.U. curriculum. She wrote and lectured extensively and her Handbooks and Treatise on Civil Procedure and Evidence are widely utilized by lawyers and judges.  She was a leader on that faculty, serving a term as assistant dean and mentoring many younger colleagues. She was recognized as a Law Star and a Mary Lathrop Trailblazer. She contributed her time and energy to the entire legal community in many ways, including serving on the Supreme Court Evidence Rules Committee for many years. Always involved in the Jewish community, Sheila served in a number of community roles throughout the years, spending her most recent time as a member of the Rocky Mountain Hebrew Chorale. Most of all, Sheila was a loving wife, sister, aunt, mother and grandmother. A true matriarch, she would feed, host, teach and welcome guests by the dozens - and she did it all with a smile, a hug, a visor and a detailed spreadsheet. Sheila is survived by her husband Robert Hyatt; children Dan (Dr. Mandy) Hyatt and Rabbis Emily (Michael) Cohen; grandchildren Hannah and Mason Hyatt and Neil Cohen; brother Stuart (Susan) Krawll, and sisters Jan Fishman and Maralin (Adam) Blistein. Service, Sunday, 1:00pm, Rodef Shalom; Interment Emanuel Cemetery. Contributions may be made in Sheila’s memory to the The Denver Hospice, to whom we will be eternally grateful for the love and dignity Sheila received while in their care.