Real estate leader Sala dies at age 90

Thursday, Nov. 11, 1999 | 9:19 a.m.

In 1964 Frank Sala took a drive through the Las Vegas desert with his son, Reno attorney Frank Sala Jr., as he considered becoming a real estate agent.

"Pop told me that people were advising him against it, telling him that all of the growth in Southern Nevada was over -- that he missed the opportunities to deal in land in the 1950s, and now it was too late," Frank Jr. said. "He did not agree."

At a time when many people are preparing for retirement, the 55-year-old native Nevadan embarked on a career that would span 35 years.

Frank J. Sala Sr., who brokered the deals to sell Harold's Club in Reno and the old Thunderbird Hotel on the Las Vegas Strip to billionaire Howard Hughes, died Monday of complications from old age at Summerlin Hospital Medical Center. He was 90.

Services for the Las Vegas resident of 40 years will be 1:30 p.m. Monday at Our Lady of Las Vegas Catholic Church, 3050 Alta Drive. Visitation will be 1-5 p.m. Sunday at Palm Mortuary-Cheyenne, followed by a rosary at 5 p.m. Burial will be in Palm Memorial Park.

"Frank was a father figure to most of us in the real estate business and his handshake was his word," said Chuck Ruthe, Sala's partner in the 1960s and '70s. "I never had a contract with him and we never had a dispute."

In July 1970 then-Gov. Paul Laxalt appointed Sala to the Nevada Real Estate Advisory Commission.

On that board Sala became the driving force behind the continuing education law that now requires real estate agents to take refresher courses to renew their licenses.

Born May 17, 1909, on a ranch outside of Carson City, Sala was the older of two children of Italian immigrants Antonio Sala and the former Savina Tognoli.

A graduate of Reno High and the University of Nevada, now UNR, Sala started selling real estate in 1932 but gave it up -- for good, he thought -- because of the Depression. He traveled the northwest as a prizefighter and encyclopedia salesman before meeting legendary Las Vegas bookmaker Sammy Cohen in Seattle.

Together, they operated a horse race book at Lake Tahoe before coming to Las Vegas in 1959 to run the old Santa Anita Race and Sports Book on the Strip.

"My father later realized that bookmaking was not the job for him," Frank Jr. said. That's when he became a real estate agent.

Sala was president of the Las Vegas Board of Realtors -- now the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors -- and the Nevada Association of Realtors and was a director of the National Association of Realtors.

In 1981 Sala was named Las Vegas' real estate agent of the year. Today, the Frank J. Sala Award is given to the local real estate agent who is deemed most politically involved in the profession.

In 1984 he was named chairman of Nevada State Bank after serving 15 years on its board of directors.

He was one of the founders of the Southern Nevada Industrial Foundation, now the Nevada Development Authority, and a past president of the Las Vegas Better Business Bureau. Sala also was a member of the Rotary Club, Elks and Eagles. He donated land to UNLV and a scholarship at the university is named for him.

In addition to his son, Sala is survived by a sister, Rose Bullis of Reno; a nephew, Gary Bullis of Reno; and a granddaughter, Susan Diane Sala of Grapevine, Texas. He was preceded in death by his wife, Emma "Mickey" Sala in 1992.

Donations may be made in Sala's memory to Our Lady of Las Vegas Catholic Church.