Lawrence M. Judd

Lawrence McCully Judd (March 20, 1887 - October 4, 1968) was the seventh Territorial Governor of Hawai'i. He was devoted to the Hansen's Disease-afflicted residents of Kalaupapa on Molokai. Judd made several fact-finding tours during his tenure in the Hawaii State Senate. As territorial governor, he overhauled the system of governance in the leper colony. Judd became Kalaupapa's resident superintendent in 1947. He temporarily served as territorial governor of American Samoa from March 4 to August 4, 1953.

Judd was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, the grandson of the American Board of Mission's Gerrit P. Judd who was advisor to Kamehameha III and co-founder of Punahou School. Judd attended the University of Pennsylvania where he was a member of its fraternity chapter of Phi Kappa Psi.

Lawrence M. Judd succeeded Wallace Rider Farrington to serve as Governor of Hawaii from 1929 to 1934. A source of controversy during his Hawaii gubernatorial tenure, Judd commuted the sentence of socialite and niece of Alexander Graham Bell, Grace Hubbard Fortescue, convicted in the territorial courts of manslaughter in the death of a local man, Joseph Kahahawai. Hiring defense lawyer Clarence Darrow, Fortescue's case was known as the Massie Affair, a focus of nationwide newspaper coverage. Massie's sentence of ten years in prison was whittled down to one-hour in the governor's chambers at Iolani Palace.

Judd died on October 4, 1968 in Honolulu and was interred in the city's Oahu Cemetery on Nuuanu Avenue.

Judd's service as resident superintendent of Kalaupapa was a subject in the 2003 historical novel and national bestseller called Moloka'i by Alan Brennert as well as the 2006 historical account, The Colony: The Harrowing True Story of the Exiles of Molokai by John Tayman.