Alan H. Bible

Alan Harvey Bible was born on November 20, 1909, in Lovelock, Nevada, and rose to become one of his state's most distinguished lawyers and public servants. He earned a bachelor's degree in economics from the University of Nevada, Reno, in 1930 and a law degree from Georgetown University Law School in 1934, before being admitted to the Nevada State Bar in 1935. His legal career began almost immediately, as he was appointed District Attorney of Storey County in 1935 and elected to that office the following year.

Bible went on to serve as Nevada Deputy Attorney General from 1938 to 1942, and in November 1942, at the age of 32, he was elected the state's 20th Attorney General - reportedly the youngest state attorney general in the nation at the time. He served two terms in that office, from 1943 to 1951, becoming the state's leading authority on western water rights law. After leaving the Attorney General's office, he co-founded a Nevada law firm in 1951 with partner Robert L. McDonald.

In 1954, Bible was elected to the United States Senate to fill the remainder of Senator Pat McCarran's term, and he was subsequently re-elected in 1956, 1962, and 1968. Over his Senate tenure he focused on water projects, mining legislation, land development, and the protection of parks and wilderness, helping to create dozens of parks, historic sites, and national monuments. He was named a Distinguished Nevadan by the University of Nevada Regents in 1974. Alan H. Bible died on September 12, 1988, in Auburn, California, at the age of 78.