Chris A. Beecroft Jr.

Chris A. Beecroft Jr. was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, and built his life and legal career in Southern Nevada. He attended the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, where he received the Phi Kappa Phi Sparks Memorial Graduate Fellowship award and was presented Nevada's Centennial Medallion, given to the graduating senior holding the highest four-year scholastic record earned at UNLV. He graduated in 1971 and earned his law degree at McGeorge School of Law in 1974.

Beecroft was in private practice for more than 26 years in Las Vegas before being named commissioner of Alternative Dispute Resolution for the Clark County District Court in 2001, a role overseeing various methods of resolving disputes outside of litigation. A year later he became administrator of the Short Trial Program. The Short Trial Program he oversaw won a 2004 Achievement Award from the National Association of Counties and a better-government award from the Pioneer Institute for Public Policy Research in Boston in 2006.

A devoted supporter of his alma mater, Beecroft served as past president of the UNLV Alumni Association and on the Alumni Board of Directors, and he served on the building committee that oversaw the construction and completion of the Richard Tam Alumni Hall. He also lectured, spoke on panels, and coached client counseling teams at the William S. Boyd School of Law. He was 67 at the time of his death.