Mitchell Melich (Class of 1934)

Mitchell Melich (1912-1999) lived a principled life of public service that nearly spanned the 20th century. Born to Serbian immigrants and raised in the melting pot of Bingham Canyon, he earned a law degree from the University of Utah in 1934. He then opened a law practice in Moab, where he lived for 30 years and raised 4 children with his wife, Doris Snyder Melich. In the 1940s, he served as a state senator for eight years, and in the 1950s, he was a central figure in the town's uranium boom as a founder and president of Uranium Reduction Co. He returned to Salt Lake City in 1964, when he ran as the Republican nominee for governor of Utah. In 1969 he was appointed solicitor of the U.S. Department of Interior and served four years in Washington. He returned to Utah in 1973, practiced law at Ray Quinney and Nebeker, and remained a true Utah Man, devoted to the university that he had served as a regent and an advisory council member.