Abstract
The Thomas Hickey Political Papers (1964-1996) contain the professional files of Hickey’s career as a Nevada State Assemblyman and Senator. Materials include constituent correspondence, voting records, memoranda, newspaper clippings, bills, and research documentation on topics such as the Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository, the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), education, health, prisons, finance, and Nevada infrastructure. The collection highlights Hickey’s role on committees including finance, transportation, government affairs, and ways and means.
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Scope and Contents Note
The Thomas Hickey Political Papers (1964-1996) are comprised of Thomas Hickey’s professional files from his tenure as Nevada State Assemblyman and Nevada State Senator. Materials include constituent correspondence, voting records, legislative memoranda, newspaper clippings, drafts and indexes of bills, and research documentation on topics such as the Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository, the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), education, health, prisons, finance, and Nevada infrastructure. The collection highlights Hickey’s role on committees including agriculture, labor, finance, and ways and means as an assemblyman, and transportation, government affairs, judiciary, and legislative as a senator, and includes drafts of legislation with Hickey’s handwritten notes. Bills in the collection include Senate Bills (SB), Assembly Bills (AB), Senate Joint Resolutions (SJR), Assembly Joint Resolutions (AJR) and Senate and Assembly Concurrent Resolutions (SCR and ACR) at various stages, from drafts to final products.
Access Note
Collection is open for research, with the exception of materials that are restricted to protect
personally identifiable information. Restrictions are noted at the file level of this inventory and will be open for research use January 1, 2071.
Publication Rights
Materials in this collection may be protected by copyrights and other rights. See Reproductions and Use on the UNLV Special Collections and Archives website for more information about reproductions and permissions to publish.
Arrangement
Materials are arranged by accession.
Biographical / Historical Note
Thomas J. Hickey was born on January 4, 1930 in Omaha, Nebraska to parents John S. and Ann Hickey (Donovan). He received his degree in education at the University of Omaha (now the University of Nebraska Omaha) before serving in the Korean War as part of the United States Army. Hickey moved to North Las Vegas, Nevada in the 1960s, living with his father while running his snowmobile business, Tom Hickey Recreation, and working as a brakeman for the Union Pacific Railroad. In 1972, he began working as a member of the Clark County Grand Jury, and filed as a Democratic candidate for Assembly District 18, where he served three legislative sessions until 1982. In 1981, just before his final year as an assemblyman, Hickey married Cuban widow Lilliam Lujan, a member of the Nevada State Board of Education with four sons.
Hickey won election to the Nevada State Senate in 1983, a position he held until 1994 when he lost reelection. He served on many committees during his tenure as an assemblyman and senator, including chairing the Committee on Agriculture, the Senate Committee on Government Affairs, and the interim Committee on High-Level Radioactive Waste. After his 1994 retirement, Hickey and his wife remained politically active, continuing membership in some of the many organizations he was a part of such as the Nevada Crime Commission, the Southern Regional Allocation Commission, the Men’s 100 Club, the Knights of Columbus, the Boy’s Club of Clark County, the State of Nevada Americanism Committee, the American Judicature Society, the Hi-Nooner Toastmasters, the North Las Vegas Junior Chamber known as the "Jaycees", the Optimists Society, the Sons of Erin, local Elks and Lions clubs, the Veterans of Foreign Wars, and the American Legion. He also served two terms on the Taxi Cab Authority Board.
Hickey died on October 19, 2016.
Sources:
Whaley, Sean. “Former state legislator and labor supporter Tom Hickey dies at age 86.”
“Thomas Hickey obituary”
Thomas J. Hickey, interview by Dana R. Bennett, November 18, 2008, transcript. Nevada Legislature Oral History Project. Accessed May 2019. https://www.leg.state.nv.us/Division/Research/LegInfo/OHP/transcripts/Hickey.pdf
Nevada Legislators Guidebook: Biographical Entry for Thomas Hickey, c. 1980.
“Businessman Tom Hickey to run for Assembly Seat.”
“Senator seeking re-election.”
Preferred Citation
Thomas Hickey Political Papers, 1964-1996. MS-00260. Special Collections and Archives, University Libraries, University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Las Vegas, Nevada.
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Acquisition Note
Materials were donated periodically by Thomas Hickey from 1986 to 1996; accession numbers T-150, 86-20, 86-54, 87-106, 88-157, 89-72, 91-19, 91-38, 92-1, 93-30, 93-32, 96-xx.
Processing Note
Materials were inventoried by Special Collections staff in 2006. In 2019, as part of an archival backlog elimination project, Melise Leech and Billy Marino rehoused and arranged the materials, wrote the finding aid, and entered the data into ArchivesSpace.
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Storage Location
Some materials are stored in the Lied Automated Storage and Retrieval Unit (LASR). Advanced notice may be required to access these materials.