Dean F. Bryson

Bryson was born in Portland, Oregon.[2] He earned his law degree in 1934 from Northwestern College of Law in Portland[2] and was admitted to the bar the same year.[2]

He was later a member of the State Marine Board and National Labor Relations Board.[2] In 1959, Bryson began serving on the Oregon State Bar Association’s Board of Governors, continuing through 1961.[3] That year, he was also the organization’s president.[3]

Bryson was elected to the Oregon House of Representatives as a Republican and served from 1943 to 1945.[2] From 1953 to 1955 he served in the Oregon State Senate.[2] In 1961, Governor Mark Hatfield appointed him to the Multnomah County Circuit Court.[2] There he served for nine years and was elected as the presiding judge of the court in 1968.[2] As a judge on that court, he made news for issuing a restraining order to protect a Navy recruiter working at Portland State University from 36 students in 1970 during the Vietnam War.[2]

On October 23, 1970, Bryson was appointed to the Oregon Supreme Court by Oregon Governor Tom McCall to replace Gordon Sloan who had resigned.[4][5] Earlier in the year, Bryson defeated Sloan in his re-election bid.[6] Bryson won re-election to a second six-year term in 1976; however, he resigned before the end of that term on April 1, 1979.[5]

Bryson was married to Marjorie Bryson for 56 years.[2] The couple had three daughters named Joy, Gayl and Lynne.[2]