November 18, 1949 – January 15, 2023

Gary Douglas Midkiff, 73, of Zephyr Cove, NV, passed away on January 15th, 2023 from a long battle with cancer. He is survived by his wife, Pamala Toler Midkiff, daughter and son, Heather and Doug, and his 7 grandchildren, Madeline, Brady, Elizabeth, Austin, Matthew, Micah, and Lee.
Gary was born November 18, 1949 in Hot Springs, Arkansas and then was raised in Mobile, Alabama by his parents James and Dolores Midkiff alongside his siblings Carolyn, Deborah, John, Paul, and Dennis.
Gary met the love of his life at Northside High School in Warner Robins, Georgia, he was a senior and Pam was a junior. They were later married in Centerville, Georgia July 29th, 1972.
During College, Gary worked as a wild land firefighter for 4 years. While Pam and Gary were engaged Gary told Pam, he was ‘going to be a game warden and Pam was going to take care of animals.’
Gary then graduated from the University of Georgia with a Degree in Forestry. After Gary graduated he was a Forester and a planner for Alma, Georgia and then the couple moved to Atlanta.
Gary then went to work for Governor Jimmy Carter Administration, where he mainly worked on coastal zone management for Jimmy Carter’s entire state administration.
Gary was given a choice to work for Jimmy Carter as President or move to California. Gary chose California, because it had always been his dream to go to the golden state. In California, Gary worked at the state capitol for Jerry Brown, and once again thrived in coastal zone management.
He worked at the capitol until George Deukmejian Jr came into office and fired everyone who worked for Jerry Brown.
A few months later Gary and his family moved to South Lake Tahoe, where he started a job as an Assistant Executive Director for the TRPA, through the years and eventually he was promoted to the Assistant Director.
Gary finally realized that his heart was more to help the people, rather than to regulate them. He then started Midkiff and Associates in April of 1990.
Gary’s life wasn’t without adventures, he once traveled to Germany for a client and brought back a t-shirt for his eldest granddaughter.
Gary went on many amazing hunting and fishing adventures to Alaska and Utah. He also enjoyed Motorcycle trips with the Lake Tahoe Blue Riders and had gone to amazing places like the Trail of Giants and the Giant Sequoia National Forest and all over the northwest. He traveled to California, Oregon, and Washington. He loved adventure. He also enjoyed going to Highschool rodeos all over the state of Nevada and cutting horse shows all over California, Utah, and Nevada with his wife and daughter and granddaughter and local weekend barrel racing events with the entire family. Most recently, Gary and the family went to the local Trump rally at the airport and caught a ride home in a fire engine by a family friend that was a captain.
While he wasn’t quite ready to retire, Gary still found some spare time to do the things he enjoyed, like relaxing while watching a University of Georgia football game or hunting all over Nevada and camping with friends and family while having adventures in his side by side.
Gary was a fighter not only for his clients and standing up for what was right but, in 2011 Gary suffered a stroke that took his speech and he would then work hard every day to be able to speak again. Gary later found out he had cancer and he fought that too, with everything he had.
One of the strongest people anyone could ever hope to have in their corner. Gary will be greatly missed by his family and all those he has worked alongside for the last 45+ years as the Principal Planner of Midkiff and Associates, Inc and as an executive at TRPA, as well as all of the friends he had made over the years.
Midkiff and Associates, Inc will continue to run as usual in honor of Gary and his passion to help the people of the Lake Tahoe Basin.
A Celebration of Gary’s Life will be held on June 4th in the Grandview Dining Room at the Douglas County Community Center from 1 pm to 4 pm. RSVP to MidkiffandAssoc@gmail.com or 775-588-1090 (Note: This is the Midkiff and Associates office line, please leave a voicemail if you are calling outside of business hours and we will get back to you.)