Roger D. Foley

Roger Drummond Foley was born on April 28, 1917, in Goldfield, Nevada, the eldest of five sons of Helen Drummond and Roger Thomas Foley - the latter also a federal district judge in Nevada. He earned his Bachelor of Laws from the University of San Francisco School of Law and was admitted to the Nevada bar in 1948, beginning a legal career rooted in public service in Clark County.

Foley served as a deputy district attorney for Clark County from 1948 to 1951 and as the county's district attorney from 1951 to 1955. He entered private practice in Las Vegas from 1956 to 1958 before being elected Attorney General of the State of Nevada, a post he held from 1959 to 1962. In 1962 he was nominated by President John F. Kennedy to a newly authorized seat on the United States District Court for the District of Nevada, confirmed by the Senate, and commissioned that July.

He served as chief judge of the District of Nevada from 1963 to 1980 and assumed senior status in 1982, continuing on the bench until his death. Roger D. Foley died on January 7, 1996, in Las Vegas, Nevada, closing a career of more than three decades on the federal bench and a lifetime devoted to the law in his home state.