Former Nevada governor namesake for Spring Valley middle school

Derek Bellow, principal of Grant Sawyer Middle School, never got the chance to meet his school's namesake, who died in 1996. Bellow has been principal for just six months at Sawyer, 5450 Redwood St., but is a student of the man's history and read his autobiography, "Hang Tough." Bellow even visited Sawyer's burial site at Palm Valley View Memorial Park, 7600 S. Eastern Ave.

"It would have been very fun for me to meet him," Bellow said. "... He's one of the forgotten heroes of Las Vegas."

Frank Grant Sawyer was a two-term Democratic governor in Nevada from 1959 to 1967. Sawyer is remembered mostly for creating the Nevada Equal Rights Commission and pushing for civil rights in the Silver State, introducing legislation to oppose excessive development around Lake Tahoe and for creating in 1959 the regulatory gaming framework that would become the Nevada Gaming Commission.

College of Southern Nevada history professor Michael Green said Sawyer also was a big supporter of education. He even was instrumental in the creation of University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Green said.

Sawyer was on the Board of Regents for the University of Nevada in the 1950s and supported the "breaking off" of the Southern Regional Division of the university into Nevada Southern University, which would become the UNLV. Sawyer was commencement speaker at NSU's inaugural graduation ceremony, Green said.

As governor, Sawyer got "significant increases in spending on education in Nevada at all levels," Green said.

Sawyer was born in Twin Falls, Idaho, on Dec. 14, 1918, and attended the University of Nevada. He went to George Washington Law School in Washington, D.C., but dropped out to serve in World War II. After the war, he finished law school, settled in Elko and married Bette Hoge, whom he met on a blind date in Reno during college. Their only child, Gail, was born in Elko in 1949.

Sawyer was a relatively unknown district attorney in Elko before winning the governorship in 1959. He later served as Nevada's leader in opposing federal efforts to dump nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain as chairman of the Nevada Commission on Nuclear Projects from 1985 to 1995.

He died at 77 because of complications from a stroke three years earlier.

"I'm very honored to be the principal of his school," Bellow said. "The guy was a really champion of education."

Contact View education reporter Jeff Mosier at jmosier@viewnews.com or 702-224-5524.