Peter Gratton was born in 1944 in Staten Island, New York, where his father was in the Coast Guard. However, he spent his childhood in Minnesota. From 1965 to 1969, Peter was a member of the US Marine Corps, serving a tour in Vietnam. As his military duty was ending, he learned that his parents were relocating to Vegas, bringing with them all of Peter's belongings. So Peter caught up with them in Vegas where he transitioned to civilian life in a new city by "bumming around for a couple of months." He decided to stay and took a keno job at Golden Gate Casino. In 1981, he graduated from UNLV and was accredit to teach history and earth science. This proved to be a good background for an opening at the UNLV library and he helped organize the map collection. With that, his UNLV library career was successfully launched. At the time of this interview, Peter was Administrative Assistant III Lied Library Building Department. In the following pages Peter tells of his experiences that lead up to becoming a Las Vegas resident and longtime member of the UNLV library staff.
James Cardle is from Brainerd, a small town in central Minnesota. He grew up in a rural area with emphasis on outdoor fun. He attended Catholic grade school in Brainerd and a boarding high school in Prairie du Sac, Wisconsin. James earned an undergraduate degree at Holy Cross in western Massachusetts, and a Ph D in Civil Engineering from the University of Minnesota. He did research (physical experiments and numerical modeling) at St. Anthony Falls Hydraulic Laboratory, created a computer program that was used in the design of many large storm sewer systems around the country, and did consulting work on the side. Dr. Cardle came to UNLV in August of 1985 and began teaching a class on wastewater treatment. He was one of a small group of professors who worked hard to prepare for ABET accreditation. James was a member of the curriculum committee, did research on the Yucca Mountain project, and also worked on setting up a master's program. He wrote a proposal for the Ph.D. program in civil engineering which ended up being approved. James left UNLV to pursue a law degree at University of Notre Dame. Today he works as a patent attorney in Minneapolis-St. Paul. In 2006, he began acting as intellectual property counsel to UNLV on a part-time basis, giving him an opportunity to come back to Las Vegas and the university a couple of times each year.