Albert Edmunds Cahlan

Albert Edmunds Cahlan, aka A. E. Cahlan or Al Cahlan (April 8, 1899– June 1968) was an American newspaper publisher and prominent civic leader during the mid-20th century in the forming of Las Vegas. During his lifetime, he was best known for his unabashed approach to the politics of mid-century Las Vegas, which he often wrote about in his daily column.

Biography

Cahlan was the son of Albert (Bert) Wallace Cahlan (1871–1933) a prominent Reno, Nevada, newspaperman in his own right, and Marion Elizabeth Edmunds (1875–1966) a Virginia City school teacher and for whom the Marion E. Cahlan Elementary School was named. Cahlan had one brother three years his junior, John Francis Cahlan (1902–1987) with whom he would work with in the newspaper business his entire life, for whom the Cahlan Research Library in Las Vegas is named. He attended Reno High School and sought an Electrical Engineering degree from University of Nevada at Reno. However, his ultimate path led him in the printing and publishing business, and he never used his engineering education as an occupation. In his early years, he took various jobs from working on the railroad to the Nevada Highway Department. He, also like his mother, had a penchant for teaching, and when he first moved to Las Vegas he did indeed teach math at the Las Vegas High school in the mid-to-late 1920s. It was there he met his wife, also a school teacher at the old Las Vegas Grammar School. He married Ruth Estella Schuyler, daughter of William Norton Schuyler and Emma Mary Schaefle, on October 22, 1922, in Las Vegas.