Abstract
The Irwin and Susan Molasky Papers (early 1900s-2012, bulk 1970-2012) primarily contain materials related to real estate development work by Irwin Molasky with his company, the Molasky Group of Companies, in Las Vegas, Nevada. In addition, the collection includes personal photographs (early 1900s-2011, bulk 1970-2011) of family members, friends, and events, as well as a Proclamation from Clark County, Nevada to establish the Molasky Family Park.
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Scope and Contents Note
The Irwin and Susan Molasky Papers (early 1900s-2012, bulk 1970-2012) primarily contain materials related to real estate development work by Irwin Molasky with his company, the Molasky Group of Companies, in Las Vegas, Nevada. The papers include material on construction projects such as Turnberry Towers, Park Towers, and the Molasky Corporate Center, as well as project descriptions, development newsletters, magazine articles/newsclippings, and color photographic prints and transparencies of real estate projects from the 1950s and 1997 to 2012. In addition, the collection includes prints and digital surrogates of personal photographs (early 1900s-2011, bulk 1970-2011) of family members, friends, and events, as well as a Proclamation from Clark County, Nevada to establish the Molasky Family Park.
Access Note
Collection is open for research. Some collection material has been digitized and is available online.
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
Materials are organized into two series:
Series I. Business records, 1950s, 1997-2012;
Series II. Personal photographs and certificate, early 1900s-2011, bulk 1970-2011.
Biographical / Historical Note
Irwin Molasky (1927- ) is a Las Vegas, Nevada real estate developer and chairman of the Molasky Group of Companies. He was involved in many major Las Vegas development projects including Paradise Palms, Sunrise Hospital, Nathan Adelson Hospice, the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), the Boulevard Mall, Bank of America Plaza, Regency Towers, and Park Towers.
Born in Ohio around 1927, Molasky attended military high school and was enlisted in the late 1940s. He later took classes at Ohio State University, but did not pursue a degree because he had to work to support himself. Molasky worked his way up in the construction business, and built his first apartment building at age 19.
Molasky moved to Las Vegas in 1951 where he co-founded Paradise Development with Merv Adelson and built Paradise Palms, the first master-planned community in Clark County. Molasky and Adelson were also partners in several projects with Moe Dalitz and Allard Roen, including Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center, the first private hospital in the area. After the death of Merv Adelson's father Nathan Adelson (who was the administrator of Sunrise) in 1978, Adelson and Molasky founded the first hospice in Southern Nevada in his honor. The partners also founded Lorimar Entertainment, a production company responsible for television shows such as The Waltons, Dallas, Eight is Enough, Full House, Perfect Strangers, and many other prime time shows.
Molasky was highly involved in the development of Maryland Parkway in Las Vegas and he donated 45 acres of land at Maryland Parkway and Flamingo Road for the development of UNLV. He was elected founding Chairman of the UNLV Foundation in 1981, and received an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from UNLV in 2009. In recognition of their contributions to the Las Vegas community, the Clark County School district named Irwin and Susan Molasky Junior High School for him and his wife. Molasky was also a construction chairman of the building committee and a member of the Board of Directors of Las Vegas’s first synagogue, Temple Beth Sholom.
In the Las Vegas area, Molasky is responsible for the region’s first enclosed mall, Boulevard Mall; the first high-rise office building in Las Vegas, Bank of America Plaza; condominiums such as Regency Towers and Park Towers; and many other shopping centers, government buildings, apartments and condominiums, and business centers. Nationally, the Molasky Group has developed four field offices for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in Ohio, Oregon, Minnesota, and California and is currently constructing two more buildings for the FBI in Boston and Milwaukee. Molasky has been married twice; he divorced his first wife, Pepi Bookbinder, in 1969, and married Susan Frey in 1973. His children Steven, Andrew, Alan, and Beth are co-owners of the Molasky Group of Companies.
Sources:
Hopkins, A.D. "Irwin Molasky."
Lillis, Maggie. “Irwin Molasky’s projects helped mold Las Vegas community.”
Susan Molasky is a fundraiser for Nathan Adelson Hospice and a prominent member of the Las Vegas, Nevada Jewish community. Molasky, born Shoshana Borukh in Jerusalem on September 16, 1937, moved to London when she was nine. There she learned English and worked in a fabric store. She married her first husband in 1957 and moved to Las Vegas in 1958 to renovate and manage the Moulin Rouge hotel for her brother-in-law Leo Frey. Subsequently, Molasky and her husband moved around Europe for a few years and she gave birth to three sons. In 1964 the family settled in Las Vegas permanently, where Molasky served as president of the Temple Beth Sholom Sisterhood and met her second husband, Irwin Molasky, whom she married in 1973. Susan’s own battle with cancer has inspired her dedication to Nathan Adelson Hospice, which was founded in 1978 by Irwin and his business partner Merv Adelson.
Source:
Molasky, Susan. Interview, 2014 March 11. OH-02140. Oral History Research Center, Special Collections, University Libraries, University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Las Vegas, Nevada.
Preferred Citation
Irwin and Susan Molasky Papers, early 1900s-2012. MS-00661. Special Collections, University Libraries, University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Las Vegas, Nevada.
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Acquisition Note
In 2014, materials were donated by Irwin Molasky; accession number 2014-060. In 2015, Susan Molasky donated digital surrogates, but retained the original items; accession numbers 2015-031 and 2015-034.
Processing Note
The collection was minimally processed by Karla Irwin in 2014 at the time of accessioning. To prepare the inventory, the described materials were reviewed to create a contents list, estimate dates, and identify material types. No other work has been performed on the physical materials.
In 2015 Emily Lapworth and Meghan Gross processed the digital surrogates that were added to the collection (accessions 2015-031 and 2015-034).
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Existence and Location of Originals
Some items in this collection are digital surrogates. The donor retained the original items.