Jerry Carr Whitehead

Jerry Carr Whitehead was the son of James Whitehead and Elizabeth Carr, both educators, and grew up in rural Kansas. He earned his bachelor's degree from the University of Kansas in 1956 and his law degree from Washburn University in 1960, where he served as Associate Editor of the Washburn Law Review. He was proud of his service in the U.S. Army. After clerking for the Kansas Supreme Court from 1961 to 1962, he served as a law clerk for the Nevada Supreme Court from 1962 to 1963, and he and his wife, Joyce, moved from Kansas to Nevada as he began his legal career.

Whitehead remained in Nevada for the rest of his life, practicing law and serving on the bench. He built a private practice in Reno over the course of 22 years and served as a Municipal Court Judge Pro-Tem, as Chief Tribal Judge for the Paiute Tribe in Washoe County from 1966 to 1972, and as a Court Master in the Second Judicial District Court from 1967 to 1984. He was elected to the Second Judicial District Court, where he served as District Judge from 1985 to 1996 and served as Chief Judge during part of that tenure. He also served as President of the Washoe County School Board.

Following his years on the bench, Whitehead devoted the last two decades of his career to mediating cases in litigation, becoming widely known as 'Nevada's Settlement Judge' and regarded as one of the best known and most appreciated litigation mediators in the United States. He received the National Herbert Harley Award from the American Judicature Society. Colleagues remembered him as a wise, talented, and humble man who was generous in mentoring younger attorneys, and his passing was described as marking the end of an era.