Prominent Las Vegas attorney Bell dies at 76

Jean Reid Norman

Wednesday, April 2, 2003 | 8:52 a.m.

When Tom Bell's children were old enough to join the Las Vegas Country Club, he looked around the club and realized that it was aging. The lack of a junior program was keeping out potential young members. Bell decided to do something about it.

He pushed the club's board of directors until it reinstated the program, which had been inactive for a decade, his wife, Betsy said.

"He just became the worst pain in their side," she said. "He said it wasn't for his kids, but for the club."

Tom Bell, a longtime Las Vegas attorney, died Monday at his home of heart failure. He was 76.

"He told me, 'Everybody will think I did it for my children, but I did it so everyone's children could join the club.' "

Bell's children never did join, Betsy said.

His fight for the junior membership illustrated two key points about Bell, his wife of seven years said: "Tom always championed what was right, and the love of his life was golf. His whole life was the Las Vegas Country Club before me."

Born Dec. 5, 1926, in Los Angeles, Bell moved to Henderson in 1942 with his family. His father, Walter, worked for the federal government doing security at the then-new magnesium plant. His mother, Ruth, got a job at the plant testing metals, said his brother Lloyd, former Clark County undersheriff.

Tom Bell went to Las Vegas High School, where he became a football and track star, his brother said. After graduation in 1944, Bell enlisted in the Navy. He finished his military obligation in time to enroll at the University of Nevada, Reno in the fall of 1946, where he continued his football career with longtime friend Bill "Wildcat" Morris.

After receiving a bachelor's degree in business, he worked at the Desert Inn as an assistant purchaser, until Morris talked him into going to law school with him at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. Bell also joined Morris working for then-U.S. Sen. Alan Bible.

After graduation he worked with Morris in private practice in Las Vegas from 1958 to 1967. He became Howard Hughes' lawyer when the millionaire bought his first casino until shortly after Hughes' death.

"He loved to regale us with stories from his past," said Woody Hensley, a member of the Las Vegas Country Club who said he used to have breakfast with Bell every morning. Bell talked of Hughes' political patronage, but said he never met the magnate personally, always working through Hughes' personal aide Bob Maheu, Hensley said.

Betsy Bell said he never talked about the best stuff, however.

"He took things to the grave that would sell a million novels," she said. "He was very professional."

Bell became a member of the state Board of Regents in 1967 when the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, was the fledgling Nevada Southern University. He was a founding member of the university's Center for the Performing Arts and a member of the school's Football Foundation.

After he left the Hughes Corp. in 1971, Bell was named deputy state attorney general for the university system.

In 1974 he bought Mercy Ambulance and built the company for 10 years before selling it.

Services for Bell are 9:30 a.m. Friday at St. Viator's Catholic Church, at Eastern Avenue and Flamingo Road. Burial will follow at Southern Nevada Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Boulder City.

In addition to his wife and brother, he is survived by daughters Jennifer of Las Vegas and Jeneva of Beverly Hills, Calif., and son Tom of Las Vegas, and two nieces.