Oral history interview with Marc Franco Casibang conducted by Catherine Mariano on December 5, 2021 for Reflections: The Las Vegas Asian American and Pacific Islander Oral History Project. University of Nevada, Las Vegas nursing student Marc Franco Casibang shares stories of his childhood moving with his family from Cagayan province, Philippines to different locations around the world. After their international travels, the family immigrated to the United States and lived in South Dakota and Maryland before settling in Las Vegas, Nevada in 2014 when Marc was a high school sophomore. Marc Casibang discusses his experiences as an immigrant in America, learning English and adapting to the culture of the United States, and maintaining his Filipino identity. He shares his thoughts on Filipino stereotypes, the community he and his family have found in Las Vegas, his faith, and his educational pursuits to become a nurse.

On March 2, 1976, collector Debbie Nesbit interviewed Joseph Kine (born November 16th, 1906 in Elkhart, Iowa) in his home in Boulder City, Nevada. In this interview, Mr. Kine discusses working at Hoover Dam (Boulder Dam) as a high scaler. He also speaks about living in Boulder City in its very beginnings as a town.

From the Roosevelt Fitzgerald Professional Papers (MS-01082) -- Unpublished manuscripts file. Presented at the Western Social Science Association, 31st Annual Conference, Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Clarence Stay, Jr. real estate documents

Chemist, mathematician, and health physicist Billy Paul Smith donates time to tutor young people in hopes of attracting more youth into the fields of math and science. Born in 1942 and schooled in segregated black schools in Shreveport, Louisiana, and Texarkana, Texas, he graduated from high school at age fifteen and enrolled at Prairie View A&M University, where he trained with the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) and earned his Bachelor’s degree in chemistry and in 1964 his Master’s degrees in chemistry and math. Most young U.S. Army officers in 1964 went to Vietnam, but Billy’s math and science background steered him to the Army Chemical Corps, where he was quickly selected to join a new team. The team was to develop responses to nuclear weapon accidents and worked under the Defense Atomic Support Agency (DASA) in Albuquerque, New Mexico. At the same time, Billy completed the Weapons Ordinance Army course on classified information relating to the U.S. nuclear weapons arsenal. In this interview, Billy talks about his service with DASA and his subsequent twenty-seven years working at the Nevada Test Site in a variety of positions with Reynolds Electrical and Engineering Company, Inc. (REECo), a company that had “percentagewise more blacks in management positions than any other [Las Vegas] company.” He experienced the quiet racism of Las Vegas residential segregation when he tried to purchase a house in a neighborhood he liked and the unexpected kindness of the REECo general manager, Ron Keen, who made sure the Smith family could live where they wanted to live. He talks about Area 51 and explains underground testing activity and offers the scientific and ecological reasons why scientists deemed Yucca Mountain safe to store nuclear waste. After retiring at fifty-two, Billy and a colleague formed an independent instrumentation company, which, from 1995–2005 provided and calibrated radiological measurement and detection instruments for the decommissioning and closure of the Rocky Flats nuclear plant in Golden, Colorado. During that time, Billy rented an apartment in Boulder, but he and Jackie maintained their Las Vegas home, where they still reside. Billy shares memories of places he and his wife used to enjoy on the Westside and tells of their longtime friends in the black community. He also talks about developing his philosophy of philanthropy through Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity and discusses becoming a member of the Knowledge Fund Advisory Council for the Governor’s Office of Economic Development (GOED) and the advisory council for the Nevada System of Higher Education.