David C. Henley: Ronald Reagan had close ties to Nevada

Former President Ronald Reagan, who would have turned 100 today, was treated well by Nevadans.

Between movie roles in the 1940s, he appeared before sold-out crowds of admiring Nevadans and out-of-state tourists at hotel-casino nightclub gigs in Las Vegas and Lake Tahoe.

As governor of California from 1967 to 1975, he was praised by Nevada environmentalists when he partnered with Nevada Gov. Paul Laxalt in persuading the legislatures of the two states to create the bi-state Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (TRPA) that has been credited with saving the lake and its surrounding area from degradation and overdevelopment.

During his presidency from 1981 to 1989, he once again showed his concern for Nevada when he supported the efforts of his longtime friend Laxalt, then a U.S. senator, to defeat legislation of the MX missile system that would have installed hundreds of ballistic missiles throughout Nevada.

Reagan also was treated well by Nevada voters. In the 1980 presidential election, he received 155,017 votes in Nevada while incumbent President Jimmy Carter received only 66,666 votes. During Reagan's second presidential election, he received 188,770 Nevada votes to Democrat Walter Mondale's 91,655.

A frequent campaigner in Nevada, both for his own elections and those of other Republicans, Reagan spoke at a GOP rally at UNR in the mid-1980s and in 1986 made his last national campaign appearance when he addressed a Las Vegas rally on behalf of Republican Congressman Jim Santini who was running for the U.S. Senate against Harry Reid.

In his speech at McCarran International Airport, Reagan lashed out at Reid for being a "tax and spend liberal." But Nevada voters that year rejected Reagan's advice and gave Reid 130,955 votes to Santini's 116,606.

Reagan, who announced in 1994 that he was suffering from Alzheimer's disease and died June 5, 2004, at the age of 93, has been honored countless times by having his name placed on schools, streets, government buildings and the Washington, D.C., airport. In Nevada, there is a campaign underway to honor him by renaming Boundary Peak, the 13,147-foot mountain in Esmeralda County that is the state's highest, "Mount Reagan."

I had a unique experience with Reagan 41 years ago when he was campaigning for re-election as California's governor. It was 1970, and I was a journalism professor at the University of Southern California. My 15-student advanced newspaper reporting class and I received permission from Reagan's campaign manager to accompany Reagan on his campaign bus during a day-long speaking tour at rallies held at shopping centers and public parks around Los Angeles.

Reagan was gracious to my students, speaking to them personally and in a group, and in the early afternoon ordered the bus stopped at a convenience store where he bought them snacks.

When the clerk presented Reagan with the bill, he opened his wallet and lamented, "I'm broke!" Fortunately, his aides came to the rescue and ponied up the cash.

Most of my students who traveled with Reagan became successful in their chosen fields.

One of them, Jim Spoo, became an attorney, was elected mayor of Sparks, and today is a Sparks Municipal Court judge. Another student became managing editor of the Los Angeles Times and shared two Pulitzer Prizes with his reporting staff for their coverage of the 1992 Los Angeles riots and the 1994 Northridge earthquake. Still another became Associated Press correspondent in India and Southeast Asia. Two or three others, like Spoo, became attorneys.

• David C. Henley is publisher emeritus of the Lahontan Valley News.