Patrick Kyle Canfield

Patrick Kyle Canfield
1946-2014

Patrick Canfield was born Oct. 20, 1946 and was raised in Santa Barbara. He graduated from Santa Barbara High School in 1964 where he played varsity basketball. Pat did his undergraduate work at Stanford University and was a member of the Sigma Chi Fraternity. He played basketball for Stanford until he broke his elbow skateboarding.

He studied abroad on Stanford’s Florence, Italy campus in 1966. Upon graduation from Stanford in 1968, Pat attended the University of California, Hasting School of Law in San Francisco and graduated with a Juris Doctrate in 1971. After a brief private practice in Santa Barbara he joined the Fresno County District Attorney’s Office at a Deputy District Attorney and was the resident Deputy DA in Coalinga for part of that tenure. In 1974, Pat was hired by then Inyo County District Attorney, Frank Fowles and served as a Deputy District Attorney and Deputy County Counsel under the newly elected L.H. “Buck” Gibbons.  

At 35-years-old, Pat was appointed as Judge for Inyo County. Pat was well respected in Inyo County, Mono County and throughout the state. He was re-elected without opposition several times until his formal retirement at the end of 2002. Pat then continued to serve on assignment locally and through out the state on a part time basis until his full retirement in 2010.

Pat had a love of the outdoors and became acquainted with the Eastern Sierra as he grew up. He spent two of his summers as a backcountry wilderness ranger for the U.S. Forest Service during his college years.

In his younger years Pat was a skilled rugby player and participated in the Monterey National Rugby Tournament among other prestigious events. It was following one of these rugby games in Santa Barbara that he met his wife Dori.

Pat enjoy traveling, whether it was touring the U.S. after high school with a close friend in a VW Bug, or later in life traveling the world with his wife Dori, often with his Stanford friends and their wives.

Pat enjoyed community service as a member of the Rotary Club of Bishop, as an AYSO coach and referee and lately as a Trustee of the Donald M. Slager – Sunset Foundation.  Pat was involved in the men’s Bible Study group of the local Methodist Church.  
Most of all Pat loved being with his family.

He is survived by his wife, Dori; Taylor and Angie Canfield and their children Malava, Vivian and Eliana; Cassie and John Mason and their children, Kyle and Neila; Kelly and Jonathan Willy and their son, Benjamin; and beloved nieces, nephews, grandnieces and grandnephews, and great-grandnieces and great-grandnephews. A memorial service will be held 1:00 PM, Tuesday, August 26, 2014 at the First Methodist Church in Bishop.