Former Southwest Gas chief exec dies at 83

William M. “Bill” Laub Sr., the former Southwest Gas Corp. CEO who acquired key parts of the gas company’s service territory in Arizona, died Sunday after a short illness.

He was 83.

Laub took over when his father, Southwest Gas co-founder Harold G. “Hal” Laub, died in 1964. He served as CEO until 1988.

During Bill Laub’s tenure as CEO, Southwest Gas brought natural gas services to Northern Nevada communities ranging from Lake Tahoe to Elko in the east.

Southwest Gas acquired the gas system of Tucson Gas and Electric in 1979 and the gas properties of Arizona Public Service in Phoenix in 1984. Laub oversaw the acquisition of Nevada Savings and Loan Association, which became known as PriMerit Bank and later was sold.

“I was at the right place at the right time,” Laub said of the acquisitions. “The natural impulse is to grow. The bigger you are the more influential you are at all levels.”

Son John Laub said: “He lived by the credo that he wanted to leave the world a better place by being here,” Laub was outspoken for civil rights and racial equality during the 1960s when that message was not popular with some Las Vegans. In that capacity, then Gov. Paul Laxalt appointed Laub chairman of the Nevada Equal Rights Commission.

During an interview earlier this year, Laub recalled that Pastor Mario Bennett of the Zion United Methodist Church went to the Huntridge Theater while looking for a used piano for the church.

“The cops said (to Bennett): ‘Get back on the other side of town,'” Laub said.

Laub went a joint meeting of the Kiwanis and Rotary clubs to urge community leaders to urge an end the exclusion of blacks.

“As a community, we’re better than this. We can’t continue to let this happen,” John Laub recalled his father telling him about the meeting. “This is wrong.”

Under Bill Laub’s leadership, Southwest Gas was one of the first Las Vegas corporations to appoint a black officer. Earl White, who attended Georgetown University, was elected general counsel.

“It was the right thing to do,” Bill Laub recalled.

Bill Laub said he was the first locally to hire a woman vice president of communications. The woman, Judy Ford, later became senior vice president of Southwest Gas and one of the first female directors of a public company.

Ford remembers the former CEO as a man as comfortable talking with ditch diggers as business leaders.

He was so close to the business that he was burned in a gas explosion in the 1950s and his eyebrows never completely grew back.

“Southwest Gas is saddened at the passing of Bill Laub. He was an important part of the company’s growth and history. His contributions were great and he will be missed by all,” said Southwest Gas CEO Jeff Shaw.

Laub liked spending leisure time at the original Thunderbird casino. He remembered trying to get Southwest Gas to build a Thunderbird that would roar with natural gas flaming from its beak.

Southwest Gas later succeeded in helping casino developer Steve Wynn create the volcano in front of The Mirage.

Bill Laub mentioned assisting casino boss Morris “Moe” Dalitz deal with a street-corner evangelist who opposed gambling.

“I think he can be bought,” Bill Laub remembered Dalitz saying. Dalitz reached in his billfold, pulled out $1,800 that could be offered as incentive for the preacher to move on.

“Get rid of him,” Dalitz said. “Do your best.”

John Laub thought the move may have helped preserve casino gambling in Southern Nevada if not the preacher.

Until a few weeks ago, Bill Laub walked with the help of a cane but he drove his own pickup truck

Bill Laub was active in politics, serving as a Republican National Committeeman from 1968 to 1980. He was chairman of the Clark County Republican Central Committee in the 1960s. But Laub also was a drinking and hunting buddy of former Democratic Gov. Grant Sawyer.

Laub also was chairman of the American Gas Association where he met the late Kenneth Lay, chairman of Enron Corp.

Laub was struck with Lay’s brilliance and said he knew nothing about Lay’s role in the collapse of Enron.

Laub founded the Laub Foundation to make scholarships to children of Southwest Gas employees.

Laub was born in the Philippines where his father served as an Army colonel. “I grew up in Van Nuys.”

Bill Laub later served as a Navy lieutenant in the Central Pacific during World War II. He received a undergraduate and law degree from the University of California, Berkeley.

Bill Laub served as a trustee at the School of Theology in Claremont, Calif.; trustee of Nevada Public Radio; president of the Nevada Development Authority; and president of the Boulder Dam Area Council of Boy Scouts.

Survivors include his wife, Mary; sons, Bill Laub Jr., Andrew, John and David; a daughter, Mary Boni; and five grandchildren.

Services are pending.

Contact reporter John G. Edwards at jedwards@reviewjournal.com or (702) 383-0420.

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