Hollis Best Dies -- U.S. Magistrate at Yosemite Court

Obituary
San Francisco Chronicle - August 20, 2003

A U.S. Magistrate Hollis Best died Friday at a Fresno hospital of complications from cancer, U.S. District Judge Robert Coyle said.

Judge Best had been serving at U.S. District Court in Yosemite National Park since March 1994.

He died at Community Medical Center in Fresno. He was 77.

"He was an excellent judge, and you couldn't meet a finer person," Coyle said Friday.

Judge Best served in Yosemite and also occasionally traveled to nearby Groveland to hear cases.

His law clerk, Taffy Elchlepp, said she worked with him for nine years.

"He was a wonderful man and very well respected by everyone he came into contact with," Elchlepp said.

During a sentencing hearing Friday morning in Fresno, U.S. Magistrate Sandra Snyder appeared noticeably upset, choking back tears as she began the proceedings.

"We're going to do this because he would've wanted us to do this," Snyder told those present in the courtroom.

Judge Best was born in New Mexico in 1926. He received a bachelor of arts degree in law and economics from Fresno State College and a law degree from Stanford University.

Judge Best served as Fresno County deputy district attorney from 1951-53 before going into private practice. He later served as a Fresno County Superior Court judge and the presiding judge on the Fifth District Court of Appeal before becoming a U.S. magistrate.

Coyle said cases in the park will now be handled by Fresno judges who will take turns presiding at the courthouse in Yosemite Valley until a replacement is named.