Roscoe H. Wilkes

Roscoe Harold Wilkes was born January 25, 1918, in Bolivar, Missouri, and built his life and legal career in the desert communities of Nevada. A graduate of Lincoln County High School, Spearfish Teachers College of South Dakota, and the USC Law School, he passed the Nevada bar in 1949 and established a law practice in his hometown of Pioche.

His career in public service spanned decades and multiple offices. He served three terms as the district attorney of Lincoln County, and in 1965 was appointed by Governor Grant Sawyer as district judge of Lincoln and White Pine counties, a bench he held for two terms. In 1958, he ran as a Democrat for attorney general of the State of Nevada, a race in which he was defeated by Roger Foley.

In 1974, Wilkes was appointed by the federal government as an administrative law judge for the U.S. Coast Guard, serving in San Francisco and Seattle until his retirement in 1990. He was also the author of "High Desert Tales." He passed away on February 2, 2013, at the age of 95.