Carol Harter and her husband of 46 years started their married lives by running away from college in their sophomore year. They spent the 60's working toward their degrees. Carol earned her bachelor's in 1964 and her master's in 1967. One of her professors encouraged her to go for her PhD at a time when women simply did not aspire to such heights. Dr. Harter completed her PhD in 1970, and because her husband wanted to work on his doctorate, they moved to Athens, Ohio. She taught at Ohio University while he completed his courses. They lived and worked and raised their children there for 19 years. Carol held the positions of ombudsman (2 years), vice president and dean of students combined (6 years), and vice president at the university, and then accepted the position of president at SUNY Geneseo (in New York). Carol was nominated for the presidency at UNLV in 1994, and she accepted the job in 1995. Her career here has been phenomenal, as she saw the potential of this very young university and set about bringing in the faculty, the funding, the buildings, and the vision to create a first-rate research oriented facility. During her administration, the new library went up, the law school and dental school were built, and over 550 million in gifts and pledges were raised. This includes money raised for the "Invent the Future" campaign. Under Dr. Harter's guidance, women's sports were expanded, multiple graduate degrees were developed, more money for research and buildings was raised, and UNLV has become a major research university. Dr. Harter leaves behind a rich legacy, including her vision of the UNLV Midtown project, a cultural district where the university may one day interface with the community.

Ramon "Ray" Martinez was born in Park City, Utah, but spent part of his childhood in Pioche Nevada. His mother and father both worked in aircraft factories and the Navy shipyards during WWII. Ray graduated from high school in 1953 and went on to the University of Utah on a Munich Scholarship. Before graduation he joined the Air Force, became an electronics technician, and got married. In 1959, Ramon left the Air Force and re-enrolled in college, graduating in 1964 During this time he supported his growing family by working for the FAA and teaching' at Weltech College. After college, he worked for a short while and then entered an electronics technology program near Rochester, New York. It was during this period that he saw an ad for department chair in electronics technology at Nevada Southern University. In 1968, Ray interviewed at Nevada Southern and was hired. He and his family moved to Las Vegas and he began teaching mechanical engineering courses like status and dynamics. He used NSF summer grants to further his education with two summers at Louisiana State and Utah State, and then two summers at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, where he completed his master's degree. Ramon was here when Nevada Southern University changed its name to University of Nevada Las Vegas and the engineering department became part of the College of Math and Science. He made the move out of trailers into a high-tech building, has seen the change from slide rules and calculators to computers, and helped develop master's and PhD programs. He was involved in much of the work of accreditation, and taught his students much more than status and dynamics. He taught them how to negotiate job interviews, write concise technical reports, and be appreciative of the education they received in other disciplines.