Robert N. Broadbent, 77; Assistant Interior Secretary Under Reagan
Robert N. Broadbent, 77, an assistant secretary of the Interior during the Reagan administration, died Saturday in a Las Vegas hospital of complications from cancer.
He was named commissioner of the U.S. Water and Power Resources Service, now the Bureau of Reclamation, in 1981. In 1984, he became the first assistant Interior secretary of water and science.
After returning to Nevada in 1986, Broadbent served 11 years as director of aviation in Clark County, overseeing billions of dollars in construction and renovation projects at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas.
Born in Ely, Nev., Broadbent attended Cal Tech but interrupted his studies to join the Army Air Forces during World War II. After the war, he earned a degree in pharmacology from Idaho State. He made his living as a pharmacist in Boulder City, Nev., from 1950 to 1975.
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