Pioneer attorney, LDS leader Earl dies at 94

Thursday, July 1, 2004 | 9:17 a.m.

Las Vegas lost one of its visionary civic leaders Tuesday with the death of native Nevadan and civic pioneer Rulon Earl, local dignitaries said Wednesday. He was 94.

Born in the Mormon pioneer settlement of Bunkerville on June 15, 1910, Earl was the 18th of 19 children in his family.

He rose from humble rural beginnings to become one of the pillars of the Las Vegas Valley at the courthouse and within the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

He is perhaps best known for his nearly five decades as a successful lawyer in Las Vegas and for seeing the Las Vegas Housing Authority and the LDS Church through some of its most dynamic growth.

"Southern Nevada has lost one of its outstanding citizens who helped to make a difference as Las Vegas moved from a small community that was a whistle-stop on the Union Pacific railroad to the sprawling metropolis it is today," former U.S. Sen. Richard Bryan said Wednesday.

Gov. Kenny Guinn said Earl was "someone I have known and looked up to for the past 40 years" and played an "important role in the development of Las Vegas."

District Judge Allan R. Earl, who was first appointed to the bench by Guinn, noted that his father was the "last of the old-time lawyers, the last tie to that original group of about 30 Las Vegas lawyers" who shaped the city during its formative years.

Rulon Earl worked his way through George Washington University during the Great Depression to earn both a bachelor's degree and law degree. After a few years working in Washington, D.C., he moved to Las Vegas in 1946 to start a law firm with his older brother, Marion. The brothers practiced law together in the valley from February 1946 until Marion Earl's death on Feb. 24, 1988.

"The Earl brothers set the standard for the legal community in this valley," Senior U.S. District Judge Lloyd George, a longtime Earl friend, said. "Everybody knew that Rulon and Marion could be trusted. Their word was their bond."

One of Rulon Earl's most prominent clients was the Las Vegas Housing Authority, for which Earl served as an outside attorney for almost 40 years. In his time there, Earl saw the authority grow from 200 units in the 1950s to more than 4,000 units in the early 1990s, Allan Earl said.

"He worked with the directors (of the housing authority) on ways to provide more funds and more services in better conditions, so that we could have a housing authority that everybody could be proud of," Allan Earl said.

Rulon Earl "was an expert with housing," Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., said. "He was always concerned with people having the ability to have a home. He really believed in the housing programs, which hadn't been treated well in recent years."

Ashley Hall, another longtime friend of the Earls and the public relations director for the LDS Church in Southern Nevada, said Earl's leadership helped ensure the church's growth throughout Southern Nevada.

"When most people thought Las Vegas wouldn't grow much in the valley, he thought about the needs of the church in terms of buildings and civic community centers," Hall said.

Not long after his arrival in Las Vegas, Earl rose to the position of bishop for one of the wards in the city and later became the first stake president of the Las Vegas East Stake, the second major division of the church in the valley.

Earl played a vital role in the construction of numerous church buildings, ball fields, genealogical library and the Institute of Religion building near the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, as well as several welfare farms, his family said.

In addition to his son Allan, Earl is survived by two other sons, Robert, a local dentist, and Stephen, a zoning lawyer in Phoenix. He is also survived by a stepson, Bruce Lemmon, an engineer for University Medical Center. His only daughter, Miriam Tobler, died of polycystic kidney disease -- the same disease that killed his first wife, Esther, and that afflicts both Allan and Stephen.

Visitation is at Palm Mortuary, 1600 S. Jones Blvd., from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday, and from 9:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. Monday at the LDS South Stake Center, 6601 W. Twain Ave. Funeral services will follow at 11 a.m.

Burial will be at Memory Gardens at Lone Mountain Road and Tenaya Way at 1 p.m.

In lieu of flowers, the family has asked that donations be made to the Polycystic Kidney Foundation, 9221 Ward Parkway, Suite 400, Kansas City, MO 64114, or the Nathan Adelson Hospice, 4141 Swenson St., Las Vegas, NV 89119.