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Gerald “Gerry” W. Hyland, a retired Air Force colonel and longtime public servant who represented Fairfax County’s Mount Vernon District for 28 years, died peacefully on Jan. 19, 2025. He was 88.
Born Aug. 17, 1936, in Holden, Massachusetts, Hyland became the first person in his family to attend college. He graduated from Holy Cross and earned his law degree from Georgetown University, where he met his future wife and law school sweetheart, Carmen Josefina Colón.
Hyland served as an Air Force reservist with the Judge Advocate General’s Office and spent four years on active duty in Normandy, France. After returning to the United States, he remained in the Air Force Reserve for 30 years.
He also worked as legislative counsel for the Credit Union National Association. In 1976, he and Carmen established Hyland & Hyland. He practiced law as a member of the Virginia State Bar for 50 years.
Hyland served on the Fairfax County Board of Zoning Appeals before voters elected him Mount Vernon District supervisor in 1987. He held the seat until his retirement in 2015.
Known as a “leader who listens,” Hyland emphasized residents’ participation in decisions affecting their neighborhoods and urged the county to support its most vulnerable people.
His work included efforts to close the county’s I-95 landfill, preserve Inova Mount Vernon Hospital and transform Lorton. Hundreds of residents, elected officials and county leaders attended his annual town hall meetings and Lobsterfests.
Fairfax County rededicated the Gerry Hyland Government Center in 2019. The center houses family services, community health and career programs, senior and teen facilities, and public rooms used for meetings and workshops.
Beyond the Board of Supervisors, Hyland chaired Virginia Railway Express, served as president of the Virginia Association of Counties and sat on the National Association of Counties Board of Directors.
Away from public life, Hyland treasured his 35-acre farm in Parksley, Virginia, which he called his sanctuary. He grew vegetables, caught crabs from his dock and raised animals ranging from chickens, sheep and peacocks to a bull. He often brought his catch back to share with friends.
Hyland was preceded in death by his wife, Carmen; his parents, Maurice and Eve Shimkus Hyland; his sister, Cecile Gelardi; and his companion, Shirley Robson.
He is survived by his daughter, Christiane Gigi Hyland, and son-in-law, Christopher Revere, of Mount Vernon; his twin sister, Carole Santos, of Marstons Mills, Massachusetts; his brother, Ted Hyland, and his wife, Tina, of Southborough, Massachusetts; and his younger sister, Christine Sweeney, and her husband, Jack, of West Hyannisport, Massachusetts.
Other survivors include his best friend, William Bock of Mount Vernon, as well as many nieces, nephews, grandnieces and grandnephews who knew him as “Uncle Gerry” and shared family gatherings with him at the farm and on Cape Cod.
The family thanked Dr. Soren Caffee and the doctors, nurses and caregivers at Inova Mount Vernon Hospital and Paul Spring Retirement Community for caring for Hyland.
A community celebration of his life was planned for the spring. The family requested that memorial donations in place of flowers be made to the PKD Foundation or the Virginia Eastern Shore Land Trust.