Reflecting on Beko’s legacy, 20 years after his death

Where has the time gone?

It seems like only yesterday that I was chatting with my mentor and friend William P. (Bill) Beko. But in my research the last two weeks, I ran across Beko’s obituary from 20 years ago, and a story about his funeral.

The judge was my mentor during post-high school days in Tonopah when I planned on being a lawyer. I worked in his office every summer and we shared a birthday which often (but not always) was a fun day in the office.

The Beko family was prominent in Tonopah’s early days. The son of Pete and Saveta Beko attended local schools and was an outstanding scholar and athlete.

He went to the University of Nevada where he earned a bachelor’s degree and put his 6-foot, 6-inch frame to good use on the Wolf Pack football team.

Enlisting in the armed services in 1942, he was commissioned in military intelligence and served in that capacity during World War II. He was assigned to the counterintelligence corps and continued in military intelligence for six years after his honorable discharge.

In 1952 he graduated from Hastings College of Law of the University of California and that same year was admitted to practice in all Nevada courts. He later was admitted to practice in U. S. District Court, Tax Court and the Supreme Court.

He was our assemblyman in the 1953 Legislature. The following year, Nye County’s district attorney ran for attorney general and Beko ran opposed to become the county’s prosecutor, winning five re-elections through 1974.

May 1976 brought his appointment from Gov. Mike O’Callaghan as the Fifth Judicial District judge to replace the late Kenneth L. (Pat) Mann.

“Beko compiled an outstanding record of service to Nye County both in public and private life,” I wrote in his obituary in the April 13, 1995 edition of the Tonopah Times-Bonanza &Goldfield News. I may have been a bit prejudiced toward my golfing and hunting buddy but that assessment has only grown stronger with the passage of time.

No official I know today is qualified to carry his briefcase, let alone advise on county and criminal matters.

He received many appointments to important state positions related to his DA post. Perhaps he was most proud of being chairman of the Nevada Commission on Crime.

Very successful in court, it is believed he won 97 percent of the cases he took to trial. And he defeated the contractors at the Nevada Test Site in a lengthy tax lawsuit which was appealed to the nation’s highest court and brought the county $4.5 million in back taxes.

Beko was active in and served as leader of most local social and public service groups.

But for hundreds of Tonopah youth in the 1950s through early 70s, his most important role was chairman of the Lions Club swimming pool finance committee which funded and built the old community pool where Jim Butler Park is today.

He also had a major role in the Tonopah Sportsman’s Club and you could always count on him to do whatever tasks were needed at the kids fishing derby.

His booming voice commanded respect in all situations. But it served him especially well when he was the announcer for the Jim Butler Days parade and mining events as well as other community activities.

At the mining events, if you caught his eye he would nudge a donation out of you to sweeten the pot for the competitors.

As I said, we had fun in recreational activities. But I enjoyed my time on the job with him even more. I got to attend every personal meeting and court hearing. Once, a prominent Las Vegas lawyer insisted he meet alone with Beko. The DA told the city slicker, “Roberts stays or you go.”

Everyone on his staff did the best they could every single minute, lest one get the giant’s blood pressure elevated over a mistake. I was on the receiving end of some of those stares and lectures which now seem like “learning experiences” in retrospect.

Always a friend, he would do just about anything for anyone. After I received two rifles for Christmas, my dad and I took a catalog to Beko’s home for advice on buying a cabinet. Beko studied the available units then invited us out to his workshop. Within an hour I had a hand-crafted, five-gun cabinet, finer than anything in the mail order publication.

This trip down memory lane probably means little to some Tonopah and Nye County residents, Johnny- come-latelies of the past 15 years or so.

But I know a day does not go by that I don’t put into practice the lessons which he taught.

Thank you, your honor.

Bill Roberts’ family were the long-time owners of the Tonopah Times-Bonanza &Goldfield News, where he continues to report and write a weekly column.