Paul Dominique Laxalt (; August 2, 1922 – August 6, 2018) was an American attorney and politician who served as the 22nd governor of Nevada from 1967 to 1971 and a United States senator from Nevada from 1974 until 1987. A member of the Republican Party, he was one of Ronald Reagan's closest friends in politics. After Reagan was elected president in 1980, many in the national press referred to Laxalt as "the first friend". He was the older brother of writer Robert Laxalt and maternal grandfather of Adam Laxalt, who served as the 33rd attorney general of Nevada from 2015 to 2019. Early life, education, and early career Laxalt was born on August 2, 1922, in Reno, Nevada. He was the son of Basque parents, Therese (née Alpetche) and Dominique Laxalt, who emigrated to the United States in the early 1900s from their homeland in the French Pyrenees. A shepherd, Dominique became wealthy in the sheep industry. After losing everything in the early 1920s, he returned to shepherding for the rest of his career. Therese, who had been trained at Paris's Le Cordon Bleu cooking school, eventually opened a restaurant called The French Hotel in Carson City, Nevada. Therese and Dominique had six children: Paul, Robert (born in 1923), Suzanne (1925), John (1926), Marie (1928) and Peter (1931). Robert became an author; Suzanne, a Roman Catholic nun; John, a lawyer and political consultant; Marie, a school teacher; and Peter (Mick), an attorney. The Laxalt children were raised largely by their mother, as Dominique spent long periods of time away from the household tending his sheep in the deserts and mountains of Nevada. The children all helped Therese at The French Hotel. Paul played on the 1938 state basketball champion team at Carson High School before graduating and attending Santa Clara University. When World War II broke out, Paul joined the U.S. Army and served as a medic, seeing action in the Battle of Leyte in the Philippines. After the war, he graduated from the Sturm College of Law. Early career After graduating from law school and after serving as a district attorney, Laxalt enjoyed a successful career as a lawyer. His clients included George Whittell, who owned a large portion of the Lake Tahoe frontage on the Nevada side of the lake, Harvey and Llewellyn Gross, who built and ran Harvey's Wagon Wheel on Lake Tahoe's south shore, and