Thomas G. Bell

Thomas G. "Tom" Bell was a prominent Las Vegas attorney whose career spanned several of the most formative decades in southern Nevada's legal and civic history. Born December 5, 1926, in Los Angeles, he moved with his family to Henderson in 1942. A football and track star at Las Vegas High School, he graduated in 1944 and enlisted in the Navy before enrolling at the University of Nevada, Reno in 1946. After earning a bachelor's degree in business, he attended law school at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., alongside his longtime friend Bill Morris, and the two also worked for then-U.S. Senator Alan Bible.

Bell entered private practice with Morris in Las Vegas in 1958, a partnership that continued through 1967. He went on to serve as Howard Hughes' lawyer when the industrialist began acquiring Las Vegas casinos, a role he held until shortly after Hughes' death, handling casino licensing matters and representing Hughes' interests in Carson City - though he worked through Hughes' aide Robert Maheu and never met the reclusive magnate in person.

Beyond his law practice, Bell was elected to the Nevada Board of Regents in 1967, when the University of Nevada, Las Vegas was still the fledgling Nevada Southern University, and he became a founding member of the university's Center for the Performing Arts and a member of the school's Football Foundation. After leaving the Hughes organization in 1971, he was named deputy state attorney general for the university system. In 1974 he purchased Mercy Ambulance, building the company over a decade before selling it. He died on March 31, 2003, at the age of 76.