Larry Ruvo

Larry Ruvo was born in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada, in 1946. His father had recently returned from the military and married Ruvo's mother, who was from the Canadian side of Niagara Falls. When the boy's birth was imminent, his parents moved in with Ruvo's mother to save money. When Ruvo was three months old, his parents moved out on their own to Niagara Falls, New York.

"My father had lived there all his life," says Ruvo. "He had a limousine service that gave guided tours around the falls. But Dad felt there were few economic opportunities there, and he wanted to move us to the West."

In 1955, the Ruvo family moved to Las Vegas, living for some time with the boy's aunt and uncle. Ruvo's father got a job in a casino and his uncle worked as a bartender. One day, Ruvo's father came home and announced that he and his brother-in-law had rented a building and wanted to open an Italian restaurant.

"I remember that day like it was yesterday," says Ruvo. "My mother looked at my dad and said, '˜What?' My father and uncle wanted to go into business for themselves, and they knew everyone liked their wives' cooking. It was that simple. No big plan. No big dream. Two days later, we were all down scraping floors, sanding, and painting. About a month later, we opened. That was the start of a 43-year run as one of Las Vegas' oldest, continually run restaurants."

Ruvo worked in the small restaurant from the beginning. He grated cheese, washed pots and pans, scooped ice cream, and did anything else an eight-year-old could handle. By the time he was 14, he thought he knew everything there was to running a restaurant. But when Ruvo tried to fire the chef, his father let him know he had overstepped his position, and he forced the boy to hire the chef back.

"My dad made me apologize to the chef and tell him he still had his job," he recalls. "My father then told the chef that not only was he rehired, but also was being promoted to general manager, and his first task was to fire me! I never worked for my dad again."

There were no hard feelings over Ruvo's firing, however. He had deep affection and respect for his father. "My dad was my best friend," he says. "He was never judgmental. He never told me what I wanted to hear, only what I needed to hear. He didn't placate, me, and he didn't try to guide me. He gave me the freedom to make my own decisions, which was very important in helping me to find my own way when I was older."

Ruvo was an only child, and his mother doted on him. She enjoyed caring for her family, and Ruvo fondly remembers big family dinners. His mother always sent guests home with cartons of food. The Ruvo family lived in a small, two-bedroom home, and as a boy, Ruvo often listened to his parents talk in the kitchen after he had gone to bed.

One night, his mother was trying to convince his father that they needed to contribute to their church building fund. Ruvo's father pointed out that they did not have enough money to make the house payment and could not possibly make a pledge to the church. "I listened to my parents," Ruvo recalls, "and my mother said to my father, '˜Don't worry, Louis, God will take care of us.' That ended their conversation. They made their pledge, and to this day their names are on the plaque that honors those who helped to build St. Anne's in Las Vegas. I think that my thoughts on philanthropy and the importance of giving to make a difference in the lives of others stems from that conversation my parents had when I was young. My parents steered me more by their actions than with advice."

After Ruvo stopped working at his father's restaurant, he got a job at the Sahara Hotel, where he worked throughout high school. Ruvo liked school and dreamed of being an architect. Many of his friends were going to Orange Coast College, a two-year school in Southern California, and Ruvo decided to join them.

Ruvo enrolled in the college and two months later, he and a friend rented space for a pizza restaurant at the beach. They opened in April and met with immediate success. Throughout the summer months, the restaurant did well. When winter came, however, their business dropped off markedly. "I learned quickly how to budget and what the words '˜seasonal business' meant," Ruvo recalls. "We weathered the storm and wound up with a profit. I think that experience gave me my entrepreneurial spirit."

After earning his associate degree, Ruvo returned to Las Vegas. He worked on the front desk at Caesars Palace Las Vegas Hotel & Casino for a while, and he was then hired as the night manager of the New Frontier Hotel & Casino. Shortly thereafter, he accepted a job as the general manager of the Playboy Club in Hollywood. Eighteen months later, a friend from Las Vegas, Steve Wynn ('09), visited him and lured him back to Las Vegas with a proposal for a new business.

In 1970, Ruvo and Wynn established a liquor distribution company, Best Brands. Two years later, Wynn wanted to return to the casino business and was planning to buy the Golden Nugget. Ruvo stayed with the liquor company and partnered with Harvey Chaplin. Together, they formed Southern Wine and Spirits of Nevada. As the its senior managing director, Ruvo guided the company to become Nevada's largest wholesale liquor, wine, and beer importer and distributor.

Ruvo has reached the summit of success in his business, but when asked what success is for him, he says, "I believe that in God's eyes we are all measured according to how we share our success, whether it is in terms of wealth, devotion, care, or time. We are all equal in the spirit of helping others in need."

Honored by his Horatio Alger Award, Ruvo is especially interested in the Horatio Alger scholarship program. "I believe the root of all evil is not money, it's lack of education," he says. "I started a foundation for academically talented, financially dependent children because I believe education transforms lives."

Ruvo became a board member of the Washington-based American Gaming Association and has been well known in Las Vegas for his longtime support of charitable organizations, many of which benefit education and children. He has been honored by Congress, and in 1998 was inducted into the Order of St. John Knights of Malta. The Muscular Dystrophy Association named him Man of the Year, and in 1999 the Points of Light Foundation gave him a Community Leadership Award. In addition, he has received Man of the Year awards from the University of Nevada at Las Vegas (UNLV), the Food and Beverage Directors Association of Las Vegas, and numerous other charitable organizations. Ruvo received the UNLV President's Medal and is frequently listed as one of the most influential business executives of southern Nevada, and was also included as one of the Vegas Dozen in 2005. In 2004, he was given the Nevada Governor's Philanthropist of the Year Award. He was inducted into the 2005 Gaming Hall of Fame and honored by the Public Education Foundation with its 2005 Education Hero Award.

In 2006, President George W. Bush appointed Ruvo to serve on the advisory committee of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. In 2007, the Las Vegas Review-Journal named him "Most Favorite Male in Las Vegas." In 2008, Ruvo co-chaired the George W. Bush Presidential Center and continues to work on this project. In 2009, UNLV declared him a Distinguished Nevadan and was honored with the Woodrow Wilson Award. Ruvo also joined the Cleveland Clinic's board of trustees. Ruvo was also inducted into the Nevada Business Hall of Fame.