Berkeley L. Bunker (1906-1999) was a southern Nevada boy, born in St. Thomas (now buried under the waters of Lake Mead). He moved to what was then small-town Las Vegas in the early 1920s, and graduated from high school there in 1926, after which he served a mission in the Southern States Mission, then returned to Las Vegas and married. (This is his 1930 missionary portrait; an image of the older man appears later in this post.)

Maybe this is changing with a new generation, but when my family moved to Las Vegas in 1975, it didn’t take long before you knew the name Berkeley L. Bunker. He had been a bishop there, and served in other Church callings. His family operated the mortuary whose name appeared on so many funeral programs of Church members. There is now an elementary school named for him, although that didn’t happen until just before his 1999 death. As chairman of the fund-raising committee in the 1980s, he had a major role in the building of the Las Vegas temple.

Berkeley was the owner/operator of a gas station in 1936, when he decided to run for state Assemblyman. He won. He ran for a second term in 1938, won again, and was well enough liked by his colleagues that he was appointed as Speaker for the Assembly. He decided to call it quits at the end of that term, in 1940, but was urged to file for a third term in 1940, and won.

But he didn’t serve that third term in the Assembly.

That 1940 election also included a contest for the U.S. Senator, an election that was won by a man named Key Pittman – who died within hours of his election. Party leaders gathered and decided who the governor, Ted Carville, should appoint to fill Pittman’s seat. Instead of appointing their nominee, however, Carville appointed Berkeley L. Bunker.

“Why he chose me, I’ll never know,” Berkeley always said. “I didn’t campaign for it; I didn’t lift a finger. I was the most surprised man in the state when it came.”

So Mr. Bunker went to Washington, the first Nevada Mormon to hold federal elective office.

One of the many who must have written to him to congratulate him on his appointment was apostle John A. Widtsoe:

I am pleased, indeed, for one, to know that a Mormon returned missionary and a Mormon bishop and a faithful Mormon in all activities has been recognized as one fitted to occupy this very high position in the Government of the United States. Nevada will gain much from your appointment.

Again hearty congratulations and good wishes. May health and strength be given you and wisdom in all that you do. The ideals, the principles of living which are embodied in the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ are the only ones which if used by the congress of the United States will tend to bring prosperity to our beloved land.

“May the Lord bless you in all your labors,” he concluded.

Berkeley’s reply to Elder Widtsoe was quick in coming, with both an acknowledgment of his faith and an appreciation for the historic tradition of which he had so unexpectedly entered:

Thanks for your very kind letter. I appreciate more than you know the fact that I have the good will of you and other members of the Council. There is no doubt in my mind but what Divine Providence has some influence on the leaders of this nation, and should the time ever come when I could be counted as a leader I would want to feel that my actions were dictated by a Higher Power.

It is just one week ago today that I received the oath of office. It so happened that Senator King of Utah was presiding and administered the oath to me in the old Supreme Court room in the Capitol. This room has not been used by the Senate since 1857 when Jefferson Davis, Stephen A. Douglas, Andrew Johnson and others of our notable forefathers who were serving as our lawmakers at that time, marched in a body to the new wing of the Capitol where Senate Chambers had just been constructed. Thus, I was the first senator in over eighty years to take the oath in this historic Court room where such men as Henry Clay, Andrew Jackson, James Monroe and Daniel Webster had sworn allegiance to the Constitution of the United States.

I was presented by my Colleague, Senator McCarran of Nevada. The fact is, I came East on the same train with him and Mrs. McCarran. The Senator has extended to me every courtesy, and had it not been for his advice I am sure I would have found things much more difficult.

He concluded with an invitation for Elder Widtsoe to call on him should he ever find himself in Washington. “I should be equally happy to have you write me fully on any matters of interest to you.”

With no national or international experience, Berkeley’s approach to the war in Europe was tepid. He did not see any need to involve America in a European war by sending soldiers, and thought that it would be enough for the United States to send goods to Europe under the Lend-Lease program.

Berkeley heard about the attack on Pearl Harbor while he was at church on December 7. A joint session of Congress was called for the next day, and of course Berkeley headed to the Capitol to participate – but he was pulled out of the line heading into the House chamber by a sergeant-at-arms who was certain he didn’t belong there because the 35-year-old Senator looked so young. He was allowed to enter only when another Senator vouched for him.

With the United States now drawn into the war, Berkeley focused his attention on what he knew best: Business in southern Nevada. He became deeply critical of the large mining company planning to build a company town in what became Henderson, next door to Las Vegas. The contract between that mining company and the Defense Plant Corporation – a wartime arm of the federal government – amounted to egregious profiteering: 4000% annual profit, he estimated. If the agreement represented the normal conduct between the government and a private company, he said, then “we are tolerating the existence of an agency of the government that is so corrupt that it would make profiteering in the last war look like petty larceny by comparison.”

Berkeley did not have long to fight his battle against such corruption: He had not been appointed to fill the dead senator’s full six-year term, but to serve only until a special election in the fall of 1942, an election he narrowly lost to a former Nevada governor. Berkeley ran for the U.S. House of Representatives in 1944 and was elected; then in 1946, when the ex-governor who had defeated him in the Senate race died, he ran again for the Senate, and lost. Except for one more failed race in 1962, that was it for Berkeley’s career in elective politics.

He returned to his roots as a businessman – first as manager of the Apache hotel in Las Vegas. He didn’t stay there long, though, because the requirement that he work on Sundays interfered with his Church service. He loved being a bishop and had special compassion for the dying and for the families they left behind. He became a partner with his older brother in the mortuary business.

Berkeley L. Bunker was 92 years old when he died on 21 January 1999.

A great deal of information for this post was drawn from K.J. Evans, “Berkeley Bunker,” Las Vegas Review Journal, 7 February 1999.