Abstract
Ronzone Family Papers (1900-1991) include newspaper clippings, business documents, correspondence, certificates, yearbooks, publications, artifacts, and photographs. The papers document their lives in Nevada, their department store, and Dick Ronzone's involvement in local politics.
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Scope and Contents Note
Ronzone Family Papers (1900-1991) document their lives in Nevada, their department store, and Dick Ronzone's involvement in local politics. Other topics covered include Ann (Roeth) Ronzone's community activities from 1950 through the 1990s. Most materials range from the 1950s through the early 1990s and include newspaper clippings, documents, correspondence, certificates, yearbooks, publications, artifacts, and photographs.
Access Note
Collection is open for research.
Publication Rights
Materials in this collection may be protected by copyrights and other rights. See Reproductions and Use on the UNLV Special Collections website for more information about reproductions and permissions to publish.
Arrangement
The collection is divided into five series:
Series I. Dick Ronzone's political papers;
Series II. Ronzone family history materials;
Series III. Ronzone's Department Store materials;
Series IV. Ann Ronzone's community activity files;
Series V. Local History.
Biographical / Historical Note
At the turn of the 20th century, newlyweds Bertha and Ben Ronzone followed the gold rush from California to Nome, Alaska, where their first child Amy was born. With the news of silver in central Nevada in the early 1900s, the Ronzones soon followed, settling in a mining camp in Tonopah in 1904. The financial uncertainties of mining in Nevada then led the Ronzones to move from Manhattan, Nevada to Goldfield, Nevada and then to California in the space of five years. They returned to Manhattan, Nevada in 1910, where children Esther and Richard (Dick) were born in 1917 and 1920. It was in the mining camps that Bertha Ronzone noted that the local miners had no way to get basic supplies such as socks, clothing and light hardware, other than making the long trek to California. Bertha began traveling to Oakland, California buying in bulk and selling these items to the miners.
Between 1915 and 1920, the Ronzones opened retail stores in Tonopah, Manhattan, Silver Peak, and Beatty, Nevada. The Ronzone's retail business suffered from the drop in mining activity and in 1929 the family moved to Las Vegas, Nevada and opened a ladies ready-to-wear store situated downtown at Carson and First streets, one of the first such stores in the tiny city.
The construction of nearby Hoover Dam afforded Southern Nevada economic development opportunities that were not available to most of the United States. The Ronzone's downtown store was profitable and grew over the years, first moving in 1935 to Fremont Street where a men's department was added. When Ben Ronzone died in 1938, Dick Ronzone took an active role managing the store.
Dick Ronzone joined the Nevada National Guard soon thereafter (1941) and served in an anti-aircraft battalion in World War II, spending two years in Europe. He returned from service in 1946 to become the general manager of the store, by now a popular fixture in the commercial district of Las Vegas; under his management the store moved to an even larger space a few blocks up Fremont Street in 1946. He married Ann Roeth in January 1947. Meanwhile the family purchased the large Gray-Reid store in Reno, which Amy and Al Adams ran until the 1980s. In 1969 Bertha Ronzone, the driving force behind the family business and an active community leader, passed away. That same year the Ronzone's store moved to Las Vegas' first mall, the Boulevard on Maryland Parkway, where it was sold the following year to the national Dayton-Hudson chain and later renamed Diamonds and eventually became a Dillards department store.
Dick Ronzone's interest in local politics began in the 1950s when he was elected to the Clark County School District, served as a member of the Nevada Southern Campus fund, and acted as founding chairman of the Las Vegas Downtown Improvement Committee (now the Las Vegas Downtown Progress Association). After selling the store in 1970, Ronzone became even more involved in state and local politics, serving as Clark County Commissioner from 1972 to 1984, Nevada State Assemblyman for the 1971-1972 session, and sat on the first University Board of Regents in the 1950s and 1960s. Ronzone also took leadership roles in the Las Vegas Valley Water District, the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce, and the Regional Transportation Commission. Education and water supply were important issues for him. Ronzone was an active member of the Las Vegas Valley Water District and was elected its president in 1978. He helped shape the Municipal Golf Course and was active in local chapters of the Elks Lodge, Rotary Club, Veterans of Foreign Wars, Reserve Officers Association, and the Boulder Dam Area Council of the Boy Scouts of America.
Richard (Dick) Ronzone passed away in January of 1989.
Sources:
Hyman, Harold. "Las Vegas Leader Ronzone Dies."
Thompson, Sandy. "What they did for love: Ronzones helped dusty town grow into flowering community."
Preferred Citation
Ronzone Family Papers, 1900-1991. MS-00509. Special Collections, University Libraries, University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Las Vegas, Nevada.
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Acquisition Note
Materials were donated in 2005 by Ann Ronzone; accession number 2005-027.
Processing Note
Collection was processed in 2006 by Dana Miller. In 2017 Joyce Moore revised and enhanced the collection description.
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Separated Materials
Some of the photographs in this acquistion were removed from the collection and placed in Richard Ronzone Photographs, 1920-2001. MS-00343. Special Collections, University Libraries, University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Las Vegas, Nevada.