Services set for newspaper exec Melton

Friday, Jan. 18, 2002 | 9:56 a.m.

A memorial service for veteran Nevada newspaperman Rollan Melton will be 3 p.m. Tuesday at the Lawlor Events Center at the University of Nevada, Reno.

Melton, a columnist, editor, publisher and Gannett executive during a journalism career that spanned 55 years, died Jan. 13 at his Reno home following a long heart illness. He was 70.

Free parking will be available on the lot south of the center and on the first two levels of the Brian Whalen Parking Complex.

Since 1978 Melton wrote about 4,000 columns for the Reno Gazette-Journal. He became publisher of both the Gazette and Nevada State Journal in 1966 and vice president of the Speidel newspaper group that included the Reno papers in 1969. Three years later he became Speidel's president.

After Speidel merged with the Gannett newspaper chain in 1977, Melton was named senior vice president of Gannett's Western Division and a Gannett board member. He resigned the executive post in 1979 but remained on the board of directors and continued writing his column.

Born in Boise, Idaho, Melton grew up in Fallon, 60 miles east of Reno. His journalism career began at age 15 as a cub reporter for the Fallon Standard.

He graduated from the University of Nevada, Reno and served in the Army before joining the Reno Evening Gazette as a sports editor in 1957.

Melton is survived by his wife, Marilyn; three sons, Royle, Wayne and Kevin; daughter Emelie Williams; and 16 grandchildren.