Retired U.S. District Court Judge Alan Cooke Kay, the jurist who issued historic rulings protecting Kamehameha Schools admissions’ policy and journalism in Hawaii, died Tuesday. He was 92.

Kay, 92, was “surrounded by his loving wife Pat and family,” according to a news release from the U.S. District Court of Hawaii. The Punahou alum will be “missed by family, his colleagues, and many friends,” the release said.

Kay graduated from Princeton University and the University of California Berkeley School of Law. He served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1953 to 1955.

He spent 26 years as “a named partner” in the Honolulu firm Case Kay & Lynch from 1960 to 1986 while simultaneously serving from 1968 through 1971, as director of the Legal Aid Society of Honolulu.

President Ronald Reagan nominated Judge Kay to the federal bench on July 3, 1986, and he received his commission as a U.S. District Court Judge on Sept. 15, 1986. He served as chief judge from 1991 to 1999, and took senior status on Jan. 2, 2000.

“I feel fortunate to have been Alan’s colleague,” said Chief U.S. District Court Judge Derrick K. Watson in a statement. “He was a beloved member of our court for over three decades. As a truly gifted jurist, Judge Kay always judged with humility, compassion, and his famously dry sense of humor. The entire court family will miss him.”

In 2003, Judge Kay held that “Kamehameha Schools’ admissions policy granting a preference to children of Native Hawaiian ancestry was constitutional and did not violate federal law.”

The decision was “grounded in his knowledge of Hawaiian history and the Kamehameha Schools’ policy of educating native Hawaiians given that history,” according to the statement.

Kay’s decision was affirmed by the full Ninth Circuit in 2006.

The late judge also “took pride in a decision granting an injunction favoring a free press in Hawaii,” according to the news release announcing his death.

Kay stopped the termination of the joint operating agreement between The Honolulu Advertiser and Honolulu Star-Bulletin in 1999 “that would have violated federal antitrust laws and have resulted in the demise of the Star-Bulletin.”

He wrote that the “public interest in maintaining an independent and competitive press strongly supported his injunction.”

That decision was also upheld on appeal to the Ninth Circuit.

Hawaii Supreme Court Chief Justice Mark E. Recktenwald said in a statement today, “I had the privilege of appearing before Judge Kay numerous times before I became a judge. He had a brilliant legal mind and was always meticulously prepared. He was unfailingly fair and respectful to all those who appeared in his courtroom.

“As Chief Judge, he led the court with grace and kindness. His quiet demeanor belied a good sense of humor and compassion. On behalf of the Judiciary, I extend our sympathy and aloha to his wife Pat and their family.”