Melvin J. Sykes, a Baltimore lawyer who left his mark not only on Maryland law but on generations of young lawyers, died Monday at Gilchrist Hospice Care in Towson. The Pikesville resident of 93.

The cause of death has not been determined, family members said.

“I had the privilege of presiding over appellate cases that Mel presented, and he was such a master at it,” said Judge Joseph F. Murphy Jr., who retired from the Court of Appeals in 2011 and is now in private practice.

“He had a general law practice — he excelled at everything — but if he had one specific area of the law, it would be appellate litigation,” said Judge Murphy, who earlier served as chief judge of the Maryland Court of Special Appeals. “He was a Renaissance man in addition to being a great lawyer.”

“I’m not given to hyperbole, but there is no question in my mind that Mel Sykes has been for the last 50 years the premier lawyer in the state of Maryland,” said Shale D. Stiller, a friend of 60 years, who is a partner at DLA Piper.

“His intelligence was extraordinary. He could see things from so many different perspectives. I don’t think we ever had anyone like that in our profession,” Mr. Stiller said.

“He was the quintessential moral and beautiful individual. He was just a lovely man in every possible way,” he said.

Mr. Stiller said the late Judge Francis D. Murnaghan of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit, who was a classmate of Mr. Sykes’ at Harvard Law School, “once told me that there was ‘no one smarter than Mel Sykes.’?”

The son of Philip L. Sykes, former chief judge of the Orphans’ Court, and Sara Klein Sykes, a homemaker, Melvin Julius Sykes was born in Baltimore and raised in a home in the 2400 block of E. Baltimore St., across the street from Patterson Park.

Mr. Sykes’ brilliance became apparent early in his childhood, earning him prodigy status.

Once, when he was 2 years old and his mother had left a room with a warning to her son not to eat any more nuts, Mr. Sykes replied, “Give me liberty or give me death,” reported The Baltimore Sun in a 1948 article.

At age 2, he could recite the alphabet, name 60 explorers who visited America and all the U.S. presidents, and identify photographs of celebrities, according to the article.

He was also 2 when a visitor asked him what was in the Bible, and he replied, “God said ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light,” reported The Evening Sun in 1940.

During his four years at City College, Mr. Sykes, who picked up the nickname “Zeke,” maintained an average of 98.6.

When Mr. Sykes challenged his teacher John Angelo Pentz, who taught literature, poetry and grammar at City, over a grade, he was taken aback by Mr. Pentz’s answer.

“He didn’t think anyone ever deserved a 100,” Mr. Sykes told The Sun when Mr. Pentz died in 2002. “He was a major influence in my life.”

After graduating from City College in 1940, Mr. Sykes entered the Johns Hopkins University, where he was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa. He was fluent in Italian, French, German and Hebrew. He also knew some Greek and a great deal of Latin.

After graduating from Johns Hopkins in 1943, he entered the Army Air Forces and served as a staff sergeant with the 464th Bombardment Group in Italy. He was discharged in 1945.

He once said his interest in the law began when he was 3, listening to his father speaking with clients.

“They would come in unhappy and leave happier,” he said in a 2004 interview with The Daily Record.

He entered Harvard Law School in 1946 on the GI Bill of Rights. He was named editor of the law review and graduated magna cum laude in 1948.

Mr. Sykes was No. 1 on the list of candidates who passed the Maryland bar exam in 1949.

From 1948 to 1949, he clerked for Judge Morris A. Soper of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

For most of his 67 years as a lawyer, Mr. Sykes was a solo practitioner, maintaining an office in the Munsey Building and later the Maryland Bar Center and Sun Trust Building, family members said.

An article that Mr. Sykes wrote a year after leaving law school as a 25-year-old lawyer on “a surviving spouse’s right to the elective share was cited by the Court of Appeals in 2008,” Mr. Stiller said. “You would have expected that to have been written by a person who was 50 or 60.”

Paul Mark Sandler, who is a partner in the Baltimore law firm of Shapiro Sher, was a longtime friend.

“To me and many who knew Mel Sykes, he was the real granite of the bar. He had brilliance and humility and a unique style that was all his own,” Mr. Sandler said.

During his career, Mr. Sykes argued more than 200 cases in Maryland’s appellate courts.

“He was never flamboyant in the courtroom, and it was all about civility,” Judge Murphy said. “He never got accusative and could present his case without being argumentative. He was never obsequious and always handled himself so well. No one did it any better than he did.”

“His work symbolized who he was. He didn’t need to get acrimonious,” Mr. Stiller said.

“As an attorney, Mel was the perfect blend of practicality and wisdom, and I always looked up to him as model of how one should live one’s life,” Mr. Stiller said.

Mr. Sykes was an inspiration to young lawyers and enjoyed mentoring them.

“I’d tell young lawyers, ‘Find out what cases Mel Sykes will be arguing, get a copy of the briefs, and watch him in action,’?” Judge Murphy said.

Through his work as a member for more than 50 years of the Court of Appeals of Maryland Standard Committee on Rules of Practice and Procedure, Mr. Sykes exerted a lasting and profound influence on state law.

“When Mel was on the rules committee, everyone listened and took notes,” Judge Murphy said.

From 1970 to 1978, Mr. Sykes served as a member of the Governor’s Commission to Revise the Annotated Code of Maryland.

When he retired in 2015, he was of counsel at Brown, Goldstein & Levy.

Considered a wordsmith and a scholar of Jewish law, Mr. Sykes translated from Hebrew a four-volume work written by Menachem Elon, a former Israeli Supreme Court justice.

“It is called ‘The Casebook of Jewish Law,’?” and it is still being used,” Mr. Stiller said.

Mr. Sykes preferred living a modest life, avoiding honors and newspaper headlines, friends and family said.

“He did not live a flashy life or belong to a country club. He eschewed that kind of thing,” Mr. Stiller said. “He never had a huge house or embraced people who could push him ahead in a social sense. He was a real mensch.”

Despite all his other talents, the one thing that eluded Mr. Sykes was mastering a musical instrument.

“I took violin for about a half a year but then I decided I had a greater talent for listening,” he told The Sun in 1949.

He was a devoted fan of Gilbert and Sullivan comic operas, family members said.

He was a member of Congregation Shomrei Emunah.

Services were held Tuesday at Sol Levinson & Bros. in Pikesville.

Mr. Sykes is survived by his wife of 66 years, the former Judith “Judy” Konowitz, a retired lawyer; three sons, Daniel Sykes of Baltimore, David Sykes of Monroe, N.Y., and Israel Sykes of Jerusalem; a sister, Lenora Shapiro of Rockville; 11 grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren. A daughter, Rachel Garfinkel, died in 1997.

frasmussen@baltsun.com