Gary Noy,  Author and Lecturer

A Sierra Nevada native, Gary Noy has taught history at Sierra Community College in Rocklin, California, since 1987. 

The son and grandson of Cornish hardrock gold miners, Gary was born in Grass Valley (Nevada County), California,

Gary is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, and California State University, 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.

Biography

In 2005, Gary was honored as the "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 a member of the Board of Directors of the Sierra College Press and a former member of the Board of Directors of the Sierra College Friends of the Library and the California State Library Foundation.

Gary Noy is the author of Distant Horizon: Documents from the Century American West (1999); co-editor, with Rick Heide, of The Illuminated Landscape: A Sierra Nevada Anthology (2010); and he was an editor on the award-winning Sierra College book, Standing Guard: Telling Our Stories (2002).  Gary also wrote Sierra Stories: Tales of Dreamers, Schemers, Bigots and Rogues (2014), Gold Rush Stories: 49 Tales of Seekers, Scoundrels, Loss and Luck (Heyday Books and Sierra College Press, 2017), and Hellacious California!: Tales of Rascality!  Revelry!  Dissipation!  Depravity! and the Birth of the Golden State (Heyday Books and Sierra College Press, 2020). 

Gary's most recent book is Nature's Mountain Mansion: Wonder, Wrangles, Bloodshed, and Bellyaching from Nineteenth-Century Yosemite (University of Nebraska Press - Bison Books, 2022).

In early 2024, Gary will release Gem of the Sierra: Schemes and Splendor in Nineteenth-Century Lake Tahoe (University of Nebraska Press - Bison Books, 2024).

​

  Sierra Stories ​was the

                           2016 winner of the Gold Medal for 

                        Best Regional Nonfiction from the

                          Next Generation Indie Book Awards.