Hardison, former boxer, prison official, dies at 58

Jeffrey Libby

Thursday, Dec. 13, 2001 | 8:54 a.m.

Leon Hardison, well known in local boxing circles, died Monday at age 58 from the effects of an aneurysm.

Hardison, a boxer in high school who went on to box in amateur bouts, work the corner in world title fights and become a state boxing inspector, worked his way up from childhood poverty to become a state prisons administrator.

Coming of age in the 1940s and 1950s as a black youth in then-racially segregated Las Vegas was not easy, but Hardison prevailed by taking advantage of educational opportunity and his natural athletic talent.

Erlton "Larry" Lawrence, a lifelong friend of Hardison, enrolled at Nevada Southern University (now UNLV) in 1965 along with Hardison. He said they viewed education as a way up from the streets. They were two of the first black students at the school.

"Most blacks thought working in the casino industry was our destiny. But me and Leon figured we ought to be able to go anywhere we damn pleased," Lawrence said Wednesday. "Most everything we did was adventurous. And when Leon got in the ring, it was a way to be equal to everyone."

Esther Langston, chairwoman of the School of Social Work at UNLV and a friend of Hardison during his first years as a state parole officer in the late 1970s, remembered Hardison's grasp of history and geography.

"He could talk about history and places you didn't know existed. He could always challenge you to discuss things and think about them," Langston said. "You could tell him a date and he could tell you what occurred then."

Hardison, born in Arkansas, grew up in a West Las Vegas neighborhood of trailers and gravel roads.

"He survived. He came through," said Lovell Gaines, a friend and a state prison warden who worked for Hardison. "He could have gave up in life, said the world is against me. But he chose the American way."

One strong choice was boxing, which he practiced in a gym above a former bowling alley in downtown Henderson. He was one of about 14 amateur boxers coached by Basic High School teacher Mike O'Callaghan, who went on to become a two-term governor of Nevada and is now the Sun's executive editor.

While earning a bachelor's degree in history, Hardison went to work for Clark County Juvenile Court Services. Lawrence soon joined him and the two spent much of their time counseling "hippies" who had drug problems.

Hardison married and had two children. He later divorced, but provided a home in West Las Vegas for his ex-wife until a year before his death when she entered a group home.

Hardison, who went on to a 30-year career with the state prison system, became warden of the prison at Jean.

In 1987, he became a fight inspector for the Nevada State Athletic Commission. He also taught at the Opportunity School, a Las Vegas school for at-risk children.

In his free time, he fished at Lake Mead and tended to a garden that he often bragged about. He also traveled frequently, collecting art from such places as Ghana, Kenya and the Caribbean.

At Rev. Westley's D Street barbershop in North Las Vegas, he would run into Gaines and Joe Wallace, another prison warden, and swap stories.

O'Callaghan remembers Hardison as "a skinny kid who blossomed into an outstanding athlete, student and public servant."

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., boxed as a teenager under the coaching of O'Callaghan. He sparred with Hardison in those days and remembers him as a role model.

"For the past five decades, Leon was a role model for the rich and poor alike. He was a fighter doing right by others, inside and outside the boxing ring."

Services at Palm Mortuary are pending.