Longtime Beatty judge Sullivan dies

Tuesday, July 12, 2005 | 8:22 a.m.

Beatty Justice of the Peace Bill Sullivan, who served the town for 26 years, died Sunday after a lengthy battle with cancer, state officials said. He was 71.

Sullivan was one of the longest serving judges in the state. He died less than a week before the justice center in Beatty, about 115 miles northwest of Las Vegas, was to be renamed in his honor.

Sullivan's peers praised him as a fair judge and a genuine person in a statement released by the state Supreme Court.

"He was a friend, not just a colleague," District Judge Robert Lane said in the release. "I learned what it was like to be a good judge from him."

Lane said Sullivan presided with "high ethical standards, old-fashioned common sense, patience and compassion."

Sullivan moved to Beatty in 1968 after 17 years working for the Santa Fe Railroad in Barstow, Calif. He ran a gas station in town for 10 years before becoming a judge. He also spent 24 years as chief of Beatty's volunteer fire department.

Sullivan is survived by his wife, Frances, who is the postmaster of Beatty, and five daughters and one son. They are Dana Sullivan and Karen Ulrich of Beatty; Jeannie Ybarra of Las Vegas; Paula Resner of Jacksonville, Ore.; Malynda Reeves of Fremont, Calif.; and William "Gus" Sullivan of Beatty, who is a captain with the Nye County Sheriff's Office.

Memorial services are scheduled for 2 p.m. Saturday in the Beatty High School gymnasium. A reception will follow at the Beatty Community Center. The family asks that donations be made to to Beatty Volunteer Fire Department.

The Nye County Building in Beatty, which houses the Justice Court and sheriff's office, will be re-dedicated 10 a.m. Friday as the Bill Sullivan Justice Center.