Gary Noy

A Sierra Nevada native, Gary Noy has taught history at Sierra Community College in Rocklin, California, from 1987 to the present. Born in Grass Valley (Nevada County), Gary is a graduate of UC Berkeley and CSU Sacramento. Gary is the founder and former director of the Sierra College Center for Sierra Nevada Studies and Editor-in-Chief emeritus of the Sierra College Press. In 2005, Gary was selected as Sierra College Instructor of the Year. In 2006, the Oregon-California Trails Association (OCTA), a national historical society, selected Gary as "Educator of the Year." Gary is the author of Distant Horizon: Documents from the 19th Century American West (University of Nebraska, 1999) and co-editor, with Rick Heide, of The Illuminated Landscape: A Sierra Nevada Anthology ( Heyday Books, Sierra College Press and Santa Clara University, 2010). Gary was an editor for the award-winning Standing Guard: Telling Our Stories (Sierra College, 2002). Gary's book Sierra Stories: Tales of Dreamers, Schemers, Bigots and Rogues (Heyday Books and Sierra College Press, 2014) won the 2016 Gold Medal for Best Regional Nonfiction from the Next Generation Indie Book Awards. In May 2017, co-publishers Heyday and Sierra College Press released Gary's book Gold Rush Stories: 49 Tales of Seekers, Scoundrels, Loss and Luck. In June 2020, Gary Noy's newest book, Hellacious California! Tales of Rascality! Revelry! Dissipation! and Depravity! and the Birth of the Golden State, was co-published and released by Heyday and Sierra College Press. Now semi-retired, Gary continues to volunteer for a number of Sierra College historical and cultural projects.