Cliff Young, longtime Nevada public servant, dies at 93

Clarence Clifton (Cliff) Young died this week at the Veterans Administration hospital in Reno.

He was 93.

Young held a number of elected positions including two terms in the House of Representatives in 1952 and 1954.

He won the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate in 1956 but was defeated in the general election by incumbent Democrat Alan Bible.

Young served in the Nevada Senate from 1966 to 1980, before winning a seat on the Nevada Supreme Court. He served 18 years on the Supreme Court from 1984 until his retirement in 2002.

“Justice Young served the Supreme Court with distinction and helped shape the court into a modern body designed to quickly determine justice in Nevada,” said Chief Justice Ron D. Parraguirre. “He made the court more efficient, which has allowed the court to consider the cases before it thoroughly.”

“He was an outstanding lawyer, a distinguished Congressman for our state, an admitted to the Nevada Legislature’s Hall of Fame as a state senator, president of the National Wildlife Federation, and retired after 18 years of service to the Nevada Supreme Court as one of the court’s most innovative justices,” Justice Jim Hardesty said.

Young, an avid hunter, also served as president of the National Wildlife Federation from 1981-1983.

Young was born in Lovelock in 1922 and earned a bachelor’s from the University of Nevada. He served in the Army in World War II before earning his Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School.