On March 12, 1977, Lance Kenny interviewed realtor, Doris Evans (born in Dexter, Missouri) at her place of business, Doris Evans Realty, located at 1100 Cahlan Drive, Las Vegas, Nevada. This interview covers Boulder City and Las Vegas [1937-1977]. During the interview Doris discusses real estate, local hotels, early transportation, and social recreation. She also mentions the nuclear tests, crime, environmental changes, and marriage and family life in Boulder City and Las Vegas. Doris’s business partner, Patty (Renette Beringer), is also present during the interview and helps Doris recall the year they started Doris Evans Realty in Las Vegas, Nevada.

As he reveals in this oral history, Roger Thomas is, among many other things, a son, a father, a brother, a husband, a student, an artist, a visionary, and a philanthropist. As the second son of Peggy and E. Parry Thomas’s five children, Roger was raised a Mormon child of privilege and civic responsibility. The banking family summered in Newport Beach, wintered in Sun Valley, and taught their children by words and deeds that it is not up for debate if you will be involved in your community; the only question is how you will apply your talents and resources to benefit your community. Roger absorbed the lessons well. As a child who struggled in school but excelled in art, he attended his last two years of high school at Interlochen Arts Academy, graduating in 1969, finally finding himself “in an environment where what I did had currency.” From there he earned his BFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston and Studio Degree from Tufts University before returning to Las Vegas and eventually joining Steve Wynn’s team in 1981. As Executive Vice President of Design for Wynn Design & Development, he is the man in whom Steve Wynn places his trust to make real at each Wynn property the Wynn design philosophy: aim for a constituency of highly sophisticated, well-traveled, very educated people and give them a reality, a now, that is so fetching, so alluring they wish to be no place else. As he was mentored by his father and Steve Wynn, he too is mentoring those who will follow him. At Wynn, the next generation will carry forward the Wynn idea of evoca-texture, of creating “moments of experiential emotion that result in a memory so captivating and so unique that if you want to repeat that you have to come back.” At home, he collaborates with his daughter on a children’s book that has the potential to become a series; she is the illustrator, while he provides the words. Roger Thomas sat for this interview five days after his father, E. Parry Thomas, passed away in Idaho. Instead of postponing the interview to a more convenient time, Roger kept the appointment and explained, “This is for UNLV. If I’d cancelled my father would have killed me.”

From the Syphus-Bunker Papers (MS-00169). The folder contains documents containing the Syphus Family Group Record.

From the Roosevelt Fitzgerald Professional Papers (MS-01082) -- Unpublished manuscripts file. Presented at 5th Annual West Coast Meeting of National Social Science Association, Scottsdale, Arizona.

Oral history interview with Daniel Tafoya conducted by Laurents Bañuelos-Benitez and Barbara Tabach on December 12, 2018 for the Latinx Voices of Southern Nevada Oral History Project. In this interview, Tafoya discusses his early life in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He talks about his father's life story, his educational experience with learning disabilities, and joining the United States Air Force. Tafoya describes his career in the military, and being stationed at Nellis Airforce Base. Lastly, Tafoya discusses with involvement with the Clark County School District (CCSD) and with the Latin Chamber of Commerce.