Merlyn H. Hoyt

Merlyn H. Hoyt was born June 13, 1933, in Ely, Nevada, where he lived most of his life. He graduated from White Pine High School in 1951 - earning a place on the all-state football team - and went on to earn a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of Nevada, Reno. He began his working life in 1957 as a cost accountant for the Kennecott Copper Nevada Mines Division in McGill, Nevada, before turning to the law and completing law school in January 1963 after two and a half years of study. He passed the bar examinations in both Washington, D.C., and Nevada, and was admitted to the State Bar of Nevada on November 18, 1963.

Hoyt's legal career carried him across public service at several levels. He served as an attorney for the Department of the Interior, specializing in National Parks and Monuments, and was appointed an Assistant U.S. Attorney in Reno, Nevada, by Attorney General Nicholas deB. Katzenbach. Returning to his home county, he was elected District Attorney of White Pine County and re-elected four years later, serving seven years in that office.

Most people simply knew him as "the Judge." He was appointed to the district court bench by Governor Mike O'Callaghan to finish out a term, then was elected and re-elected District Judge five times. He served 27 years on the bench of the Seventh Judicial District - ten years longer than anyone else in that district - before retiring mid-term. Among the memories he carried through his life was having taken part in the 1963 civil rights march to the Lincoln Memorial, where he heard Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. speak. Merlyn H. Hoyt died January 23, 2016.