Richard Ronzone Photographs (PH-00343)

The Ronzone Family left an important legacy to the city of Las Vegas, Nevada through the business ventures of Bertha Ronzone and later through the local political work of Richard “Dick” Ronzone. After silver was struck in central Nevada in the early 1900s Bertha, her husband Ben, and their daughter Amy moved from Alaska to Nevada and settled in a mining camp in Tonopah, Nevada in 1904. Their children Richard and Esther were born in Manhattan, Nevada in 1917 and 1920. Bertha Ronzone noted that the local miners had no way to get basic supplies, so she began selling cloth, thread, jeans, socks, clothing, and light hardware.

Bertha Ronzone opened a store in Manhattan between 1915 and 1917, but the First World War significantly harmed the mining industry. The Ronzone’s retail business reacted slowly to the drop in mining activity, however, and in 1919 Bertha and Amy opened a second store in Tonopah. Business in Manhattan soon slowed to the point that Ben and the younger two children joined them in Tonopah. The family business continued to grow and the Ronzones opened additional stores in Silver Peak, Nevada and Beatty, Nevada. Leaving Amy and her husband to tend the Tonopah store, the rest of the family moved to Las Vegas, Nevada in 1929 to open a ladies ready-to-wear store situated downtown at Carson and First streets, one of the first such stores in the city. The construction of the Hoover Dam bolstered the Ronzone’s Store, and in 1935 the store moved to Fremont Street and added a men’s department.

Richard Ronzone returned from the University of Nevada to Las Vegas after his father died in 1938 to manage the store. He joined the Nevada National Guard in 1941 and served in an anti-aircraft battalion during the Second World War, including two years in Europe. In 1946 he became the general manager of the store, which had grown into a popular fixture in the commercial district of Las Vegas. Under his management the store moved to an even larger space a few blocks up Fremont Street in 1946. In 1969 the Ronzone’s Store moved to Las Vegas’s first mall, the Boulevard on Maryland Parkway, where it was sold the following year to the national Dayton-Hudson chain and later renamed Diamonds.

Dick Ronzone’s success in local politics began in the 1950s. He was elected to the Clark County School District, served as a member of the Nevada Southern Campus Fund, and acted as founding chairman of the Las Vegas Downtown Improvement Committee. After selling the store in 1970 Ronzone became even more involved in state and local politics, serving as Clark County Commissioner from 1972 to 1984, Nevada State Assemblyman for the 1971-1972 session, and Regent for the University Board of Regents in the 1950s and 1960s. Ronzone also took leadership roles in the Las Vegas Valley Water District (including president in 1978), the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce, and the Regional Transportation Commission. He also helped shape the Municipal Golf Course and was active in local chapters of the Elks Lodge, Rotary Club, Veterans of Foreign Wars, Reserve Officers Association, and the Boulder Dam Area Council of the Boy Scouts of America.

Richard Ronzone married Ann Roeth in January 1947. He retired from business and politics in 1985. He died in January of 1989.

References

Hyman, Harold. “Las Vegas Leader Ronzone Dies,” Las Vegas Sun. January 22, 1989.

Thompson, Sandy. “What they did for love: Ronzones helped dusty town grow into flowering community,” Las Vegas Weekend. January 25, 1985.