Bruce Isaacson was born in 1956 in Castro Valley, California and spent his childhood in Oakland, California. Isaacson became the first poet laureate of Clark County (Nevada) in June 2015. He was born in Castro Valley, California to Betty Griffin and Bernard Isaacson, and spent his childhood in Oakland. He received his bachelor’s degree from Claremont McKenna College with majors in economics as well as drama, and continued studying for his Masters of Business Administration at Dartmouth College.
Nevada Assemblyman, Senator, and Regent, Dr. Jack Schofield was born in 1923 and passed away in 2015. In 1941 he graduated from Las Vegas High School, married Alene Earl, and became the Golden Gloves welterweight boxing champion. He earned a bachelor's of science degree from the University of Utah in 1949, a master's degree from the University of Nevada, Reno in 1967, and a doctorate in education from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas in 1995.
Joseph Theodor LaVoie was a police officer and civic activist in Las Vegas, Nevada. He was born in St. Boniface, Canada on March 28, 1916. Around 1920, the family moved to Los Angeles, California. In 1939, LaVoie moved to Las Vegas, Nevada, and began work at the Rheem Manufacturing Company in Henderson. In 1946, LaVoie joined the City of Las Vegas Police Department as a motorcycle officer where he worked as a police officer for twenty years, retiring as a sergeant in 1966.
Jack Leavitt was a land surveyor, engineer, and real estate developer in Southern Nevada who worked mainly in Las Vegas, Nevada. Leavitt was born on March 9, 1924 in Bunkerville, Nevada to Mike and Estella Leavitt. Leavitt graduated from Las Vegas High School in 1942 and attended the Heald Engineering College in San Francisco, California. After leaving college, Leavitt acquired work from an engineering firm in Nevada, but later quit to work for the Pioneer Title Insurance and Trust Company in Las Vegas, Nevada, where he was employed for ten years.
Jazz musician and restaurateur Gene Nakanishi is a second-generation native-born Las Vegan. In the 1920s, Gene's paternal grandfather worked on the Union Pacific railroad between what is now Zyzzx, California, and Las Vegas. After his oldest child died from lack of available medical care, the elder Nakanishi moved his family to Las Vegas and commuted to his work site. During WWII, when Gene's father was 17, the Nakanishi family was interned at the Heart Mountain War Relocation Center, near Cody, Wyoming.
In 1990, when Tina's parents opened the Fortune Inn restaurant, seven-year-old Tina began working alongside them; they closed the restaurant in 2005. After the restaurant closed, Tina's mother, So Lin Kwan, became a dealer and her father, David Kwan, became a cook at Lily Langtry restaurant in the Golden Nugget. So Lin is the third youngest of ten children born in Quiping to a different Kwan family. So Lin's oldest sister and her brother were the first of the family to emigrate; the brother did so at twelve years of age.