Debra March was born in Detroit, Michigan, in 1953. She is one of eight siblings all of whom attended Catholic school as children and eventually went on to professional careers. Debra's father worked for the city of Detroit, then moved to Las Vegas and was hired by the Clark County School District. He ultimately retired from there. Debra came to Las Vegas for the first time in 1973. Though she left for a couple of years, she eventually settled here and attended UNLV, earning an undergraduate degree in anthropology and biology. She then served a little over six years as a park ranger in Red Rock and Lake Tahoe. While at Lake Tahoe, Debra got her real estate license. She followed her husband to Ely, where she became a social worker. She ran the welfare division for rural Nevada in several counties and also kept her real estate license active. In 1989, Debra applied for the position of administrator of the Nevada Real Estate Division in Las Vegas. In her capacity as deputy administrator, Debra oversaw the activities of individuals who sold real estate. She and others in the division also monitored land sales time-shares, campground memberships and appraisers. She served in that position for four and a half years. In 1996, Debra was hired at UNLV. Many of the faculty members in the real estate school today are the ones who were there when she was hired, such as Mike Clauretie, Dick Hoyt, and Bob Aalberts. The Lied Institute, which she directs, supports an academic program in real estate and finance. It also conducts research, addresses community issues such as affordable housing, and offers adult and executive education programs. Debra is very involved in addressing many of the problems of housing and transportation that affect everyone living in the valley. In addition to heading the Lied Institute, she is also a Henderson planning commissioner, serves on the National Board of the American Planning Association, and is vice chairman of the board of the Urban Land Institute. She is proud of having established a real estate mentoring program that matches students with industry professionals, and she works closely with students to help them with their career goals.

The Strip Centre sign sits along a stretch of vacant storefronts in the north-end section of South Las Vegas Boulevard. Information about the sign is available in the Southern Nevada Neon Survey Data Sheet.
Sign owner: Has been for sale since 2013
Sign details: This location has is a little shopping mall, and is called the strip centre since they are near the north end of the strip. Though this location has been up for sale since 2013.
Sign condition: 3- has had some bad weathering over the years and the paint is quite faded now.
Sign form: Blade
Sign-specific description: This sign stand on top of the building above the entrance. It is a green base that reaches the top of the sign. On the top part there is a big green steel rectangle with yellow painted words "The Strip Centre" but the word "Strip" is contained in channeled neon while the other two words are skeletal neon. Beneath this is 3 green sign boxes that would contain back lit plastic signs, but there are no signs in them currently. To the south side of the main sign there are remains of a sign that look like it used incandescent light bulbs.
Sign - type of display: Neon and plastic back lit signs.
Sign - media: Steel and plastic
Sign - non-neon treatments: Plastic back lit portion
Sign environment: This location is on the north end of the strip. It is north of the Stratosphere by a few blocks but also has some motels and wedding chapels close to it.
Sign - date of installation: Has been up since at least 2009
Sign - thematic influences: The plastic back lit portion is helpful for malls like this since they can change out which stores are within the mall relatively easily without getting a whole new sign.
Survey - research locations: Google map roadside view, attempted assessor's page but could not find it
Survey - research notes: This location was hard to find information on since it is for sale. Also I could not find information on it the assessor's page for some reason.
Surveyor: Emily Fellmer
Survey - date completed: 2017-10-01
Sign keywords: Neon; Plastic; Backlit; Steel; Pole sign; Back to back

Dr. Robert Skaggs grew up around the St. Louis area. His father was a teamster with a milk delivery route, tried his hand at the restaurant business, and during WWII worked tor U.S. Cartridge. Several members of Dr. Skaggs's family were teachers, including his grandmother and a couple of aunts. Robert graduated trom Normandy High School and afterwards attended the Missouri School of Mines and majored in metallurgical engineering. He graduated in 1954 and went to work tor DuPont tor two years. He went to graduate school at Iowa State on an Atomic Energy Commission scholarship, and afterwards was hired by Standard Oil of California. During this time he met and married Anna Pedersen (1961) and moved to Minneapolis to work for Honeywell. Around 1966, Bob started teaching at the University of Kentucky. After a couple of years, he got wind of teaching opportunities at the Southern Division of the University of Nevada (now UNLV), and interviewed with Herb Wells. He and his family moved to Boulder City (1969) and he began teaching at what is now UNLV. He was involved in the work bringing accreditation to the engineering department, establishing a chapter for Tau Beta Pi, the Engineering Honor Society, and building a master's and a PhD program. After a heart attack in 1975, Dr. Skaggs took a sabbatical from UNLV and did some team teaching at University of Arizona in Tucson with Ray Sierka. He returned to UNLV on a half time teaching basis, and also worked for the Bureau of Mines. He was again involved in accreditation preparations and stayed to graduate a PhD student in engineering. He looks upon his experiences at UNLV as very positive and delightful.