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Still Practicing Law at 95

The Clovis, N.M., News Journal, published a wonderful piece last week with Washington and Lee law alumnus Lynell Skarda of the Class of 1941. The story calls Lyn the oldest practicing lawyer in New Mexico. He turned 95 last month.

Lyn followed his late brother, Langdon, a 1938 law school graduate, to W&L, and his son, Jeff, is an undergraduate alumnus in the Class of 1966.

As the article notes, Lyn was born in Clovis and worked as a bellhop at the Hotel Clovis. After law school, he began to work at his family’s bank, The Citizens Bank of Clovis, where he is the chairman of the board and one of the bank’s three directors. The bank has been part of the Skarda family for 90 years. Lyn’s father was one of a group of investors that established the Farmers State Bank of Clovis, which merged with Citizens in 1924.

The News Journal story, which includes a slide show of photos, takes the form of a series of questions posed to Lyn, and it’s worth a quick read. Among other things, you will discover that he enjoys reading on his Kindle after a day at the office and, when asked to talk about a happy time, he responded: “All the time.”

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