Chef and longtime gaming executive Joseph “Joe” Wilcock was born in Detroit and raised by his mother, Ruby, and stepfather, Ross Johnson, in Sarasota, Florida; Gary, Indiana; and Harlan, Kentucky. After he graduated from high school in Gary he moved to Chicago to attend Washburne Culinary Institute. While attending Washburne Joe worked at Chicago’s Drake Hotel and lived at the Sears YMCA. After earning his certificate from Washburne, Joe worked at the newly opened Holiday Inn in Chicago, the Sea View hotel in Bal Harbour, Florida, and a resort at Blowing Rock, North Carolina. At Blowing Rock he heard about the new School of Hotel Management at UNLV and in August 1969 23-year-old Joe headed for Las Vegas with $400 in his pocket. Las Vegas was a disappointment. Joe could not get a job as a chef without first joining Culinary Workers Union Local 226-which he could not afford to do. Also, because he ran a poker game and cooked at the Chuck Wagon Diner during high school his high school grade point average was roughly a C-, which hindered his admittance into the School of Hotel Management. Undaunted, Joe found a job bussing tables at the Frontier Hotel and joined the Culinary Union so he could work as a chef. He also took three classes at UNLV that semester, earned an A in each, and was admitted to the School of Hotel Management. While at UNLV he affiliated with Sigma Chi fraternity. In his career Joe has worked in all facets of the gaming industry in such Las Vegas properties as the Flamingo Capri, the Frontier, Caesars Palace, the Tropicana, the Dunes, the Golden Nugget, the Mirage, Treasure Island, the Sands, MGM, and the Downtown Grand. He learned the business from the ground up. He also worked at Caesars Tahoe and at different times owned and operated a sandwich shop and a bar. Joe married his wife, Linda, 38 years ago in Las Vegas, in 1976. He is currently employed as a casino shift manager at the Downtown Grand hotel and is affiliated with the House Corporation of Sigma Chi Alumni, UNLV Rebel Golf, the Las Vegas Natural History Museum, and Candlelighters Childhood Cancer Foundation of Nevada.
The University of Nevada, Las Vegas Photograph Collection (approximately 1900-2004) depicts the development of the university and the city of Las Vegas. The collection includes images of campus buildings, student activities, sports teams, past university presidents, and Las Vegas in the early twentieth century. Early images depicting the surrounding area are included in this collection as well.
The James Cashman Sr. Photograph Collection (approximately 1905 to 1975) consists of black-and-white photographic prints, negatives, slides, and albums as well as a glass plate negative. The photographs depict four major subjects: Cashman's family, friends, and associates; Cashman's businesses; the Hoover Dam and Colorado River; and various locations across Nevada.
The Tom Hawley Papers (approximately 1955-2019) contain the personal papers of Las Vegas, Nevada based traffic and transportation reporter, Tom Hawley. The collection primarily includes physical and digital materials that represent Hawley's interests in Las Vegas history; transportation issues in the Las Vegas Valley, including the Las Vegas Monorail and Resort Corridor Project; and his work as a traffic and transportation reporter for KSNV Channel 3. Materials from KSNV include video clips and transcripts of Video Vault, a segment on the history of Las Vegas hosted by Hawley. Other materials in this collection include ephemera, postcards, newspaper clippings, and memorabilia on Las Vegas entertainment and gaming. The collection also includes papers and memorabilia representing Hawley's activities as a string bass player for the Henderson Symphony Orchestra and files kept by his parents on Marta Becket and the Amargosa Opera House in Death Valley Junction, California.