Rulon A. Earl

Rulon A. Earl was a native Nevadan and one of the pillars of the early Las Vegas legal community. Born on June 15, 1910, in the Mormon pioneer settlement of Bunkerville, he was the 18th of 19 children and rose from humble rural beginnings. He worked his way through George Washington University during the Great Depression, earning both a bachelor's degree and a law degree, and after a few years working in Washington, D.C., he moved to Las Vegas in 1946 to establish a law firm with his older brother, Marion.

The Earl brothers practiced law together in the valley from February 1946 until Marion Earl's death in 1988, and Rulon was later remembered as the last of the old-time lawyers - a tie to the original group of roughly 30 attorneys who shaped the city during its formative years. Over nearly five decades of practice, one of his most prominent clients was the Las Vegas Housing Authority, for which he served as outside counsel for almost 40 years, guiding it as it grew from 200 units in the 1950s to more than 4,000 units by the early 1990s. Colleagues recalled that the Earl brothers set the standard for the legal community and that their word was their bond.

Beyond his legal career, Earl was a devoted civic and religious leader. He served as a bishop for one of the city's wards and became the first stake president of the Las Vegas East Stake of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, playing a vital role in the construction of numerous church buildings, ball fields, a genealogical library, an Institute of Religion building near the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and several welfare farms. He died in 2004 at the age of 94, honored as one of the visionary civic leaders who helped Las Vegas grow from a railroad whistle-stop into a major metropolis.