Oral history interviews with Robert List conducted by Claytee D. White on December 10, 2018, January 11, 2019, May 3, 2019, May 7, 2019, and June 12, 2019 for the Boyer Early Las Vegas Oral History Project. In this interview, Robert List, former Governor of Nevada and Nevada Attorney General, recounts his early life and his summers spent on a family ranch in Northern Nevada. List details moving to Carson City in 1951, eventually practicing law, and recounts various experiences leading up to his political career. He elaborates on the events that happened during and after his term, including his involvement in an operation to clear the Mob out of many Las Vegas, Nevada hotels, such as the Tropicana, the Stardust, and the Riviera. List explains how his term helped Las Vegas move away from the influence of organized crime.
On February 29, 1980, Annie Shum interviewed Lilly Fong about her experiences as an educator and resident in Southern Nevada. Born in Superior, Arizona in 1926, Fong would eventually move to Las Vegas after marrying her husband, Wing Fong. Prior to this move, she received her education in both China and Arizona; she later completed her master’s degree in education at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV). In the interview, Fong talks briefly about her background and eventual move to Las Vegas. She describes how her educational career started at the historic Fifth Street School as a third grade teacher in 1950. Fong also lists several organizations of which she was a part, including the Parent Teacher Association (PTA) and the American Association of University Women (AAUW). Fong also mentioned that she and her husband opened their own Chinese restaurant, Fong’s Garden, on East Charleston Boulevard in 1955. Later in the interview, Fong describes her campaign for the Nevada State Board of Regents in 1974 where she would make several accomplishments in the development of UNLV, including the building of its Fine Arts Complex. Fong later talks about Chinese traditions in which she would take part as well as her life in China from 1930 to 1937. The interview concludes with Fong’s thoughts on the Asian Studies program at UNLV and her personal perspective on religion.