In the signature line of Harry Fagel?s emails is a reads: Be the light in dark spaces. This illumines the person that Harry is both as a police officer and a poet in Las Vegas. Harry is native Las Vegan, who has served the community with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department for nearly 30 years. He currently is a police lieutenant serving in Laughlin, Nevada. In addition, Fagel is a respected poet, writing both for the public and on commission. He performs in the local poetry scene. He also has showcased his poetry in two published books, released an album, and is a recipient of the Hilliard Endowment Grant from the University Nevada, Reno. Fagel is a graduate of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and currently lives in Henderson with his wife, Leilani and two sons, Sam and Jake. In this interview, Fagel discusses his family background, how his grandparents came to live in Las Vegas in the 1950s, as well as his relationships with both his mother and father. He recalls his early jobs which included working for his cousin Freddie Glusman?s restaurant Piero?s and for Circus Circus-long before becoming a policeman. His involvement with the Jewish community started young and he shares how it has evolved over the decades. In addition, Fagel reflects upon his career as a law enforcement officer, the progressiveness of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, and changes in relations between the police and communities, both locally and nationally. Lastly, Fagel talks in detail about his poetry, its dominant themes, and the local poetry scene.

The fascinating life of David Dahan began in Casablanca, Morocco where he was born to Mathilde and Isaac Dahan in 1957. After a hasty departure in 1970 the family came to America and to Las Vegas. Isaac became an administrator for Yellow Cab and Mathilde was a server at the Stardust Hotel/Casino. David evokes a tale of growing up a teenager in a strange culture and then heading out on a solo adventure to learn about the world. By 1977, he fell in love and married an engaging Israeli nurse named Yaffa (1954-2007). Her legacy is the Yaffa Dahan Nursing Education Fund established to assist outstanding PhD nursing students in their dissertation research. Leadership and the energy to always say yes are among David?s many characteristics. He has served on numerous local boards, such as: Nevada Restaurant Association, North Vista Hospital, Touro University, Las Ventanas, Henderson Chamber of Commerce, and the Nevada Law Foundation. He has been the recipient of many awards and acknowledgments for his tireless efforts throughout Las Vegas. Among those is being named the 2005 Person of Influence by In Business Las Vegas. From 1997 ? 1999, he served as President of the Jewish Federation during which time he led a trip to Russia. He is past chair of AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs) Committee. In 2007, David was honored as Mensch of the Year at Congregation Ner Tamid. In this interview he recalls his family?s escape from Morocco, learning to adjust to life in Las Vegas and his early jobs in the restaurant business. With his roots firmly planted in Las Vegas, David has built strong relationships within the Jewish and general Las Vegas communities. David is the Chief Executive Officer of Orgill/Singer Insurance. His life experiences have fueled passions for his faith, cooking, photography, poetry and his daughters, Shana and Michelle.

Thomas discusses her family history and arriving to Boulder City, Nevada in 1930. Thomas describes housing in Boulder City and explains that people needed to build their own homes in the 1930s. She then discusses prostitution becoming illegal in Nevada, the Helldorado Parade, and the construction of Hoover Dam (Boulder Dam). Lastly, Thomas recalls how her musical career began and entertainment in casinos.

Rita Deanin Abbey is an Emeritus Professor of Art at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. She taught drawing, painting, and color theory and innovated interdisciplinary courses with the sciences at UNLV from 1965 to 1987. The University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Marjorie Barrick Museum and the Palm Springs Desert Museum (presently Palm Springs Art Museum), Palm Springs, CA collaborated to present the Rita Deanin Abbey 35 Year Retrospective, which was held February 16-March 5,1988 at UNLV and March 25-June 5,1988 at the Palm Springs Art Museum. Abbey received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1952 and her Master of Arts degree in 1954 from the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM. She also studied at Goddard College, Plainfield, VT; the Art Student s League, Woodstock, NY; the Fians Hofmann School of Fine Arts, Provincetown, MA; and the San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA. She was an artist in residence in the studios of Toshi Yoshida, Tokyo, Japan, John Killmaster, Boise, ID; Methow Iron Works, Twisp, WA; Tamarind Institute, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM; the Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, NJ; Shidoni Foundry, Tesuque, NM; Bill Weaver Studio, Chupadero, NM; Savoy Studios, Portland, OR; and Carlson & Co., San Fernando, CA. Abbey, who works in the areas of painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, porcelain enamel fired on steel, stained-glass, and computer art, has had 60 individual exhibitions and has participated in over 200 national and international group exhibitions. She is represented in private and public collections in the United States, the Middle East, Europe, and South America. Abbey has published several articles in journals, and six books: Rivertrip, Northland Press, Flagstaff, AZ, 1977; Art and Geology: Expressive Aspects of the Desert, Peregrine Smith Books, Layton, UT, 1986 (co-authored by G. William Fiero); the Rita Deanin Abbey Rio Grande Series, Gan Or, Las Vegas, NV, 1996; In Praise of Bristlecone Pines, The Artists' Press, Johannesburg (presently located in White River), South Africa, 2000; Isaiah Stained- Glass Windows, Gan Or, Las Vegas, NV, 2002; Seeds Yet Ever Secret, Poems and Images, Gan Or, Las Vegas, NV, 2013. She has been the recipient of many commissions and grants and has won several awards, including the Bicentennial Commission for the State of Nevada, 1976; the Governor's Seventh Annual Visual Arts Award for the State of Nevada, 1986; and the Chairman's Award of Excellence at the 1987 International Exhibition of Enamelling Art, Ueno Royal Museum, Tokyo, Japan. From 1988-1990, Abbey fabricated Northwind, a steel sculpture (17ft. x 27 ft. 5 in. x 25 ft. 10 in., 7 tons), installed in Las Vegas, NV. Abbey was invited by the Gallery Association of New York State to exhibit four of her works in its 1989-1991 traveling exhibition, Color and Image: Recent American Enamels. In 1992, the Markus Galleries, Las Vegas, NV, and the Nevada Symphony presented an exhibition of art by Abbey, which inspired Virko Baley s Piano Concerto No. 1. The world premiere performance of the concerto was held in 1993 at the National Opera House, Kiev, Ukraine. In 1993, Abbey constructed Spirit Tower, a cor-ten steel sculpture (20 ft., 11 tons), which was commissioned by the Las Vegas-Clark County Library District for the Summerlin Library and Performing Arts Center. Abbey was invited by the Pacific Division of the American Association for the Advancement of Science to lecture on Art and Geology at San Francisco State University for the 75th Annual Meeting, on June 19-24,1994. She was one of three artists from the United States invited to participate in the exhibition, Enamel Today, at Villa am Aabach, Uster, Switzerland, June-July, 1995. Additionally in 1995, Abbey completed a series of cast bronze sculptures at Shidoni Foundry, Tesuque, New Mexico. Commissioned in 1998, Abbey completed the Isaiah Stained-Glass Windows in 2000, sixteen 10 ft. x 2 ft. stained-glass windows for the main sanctuary of Temple Beth Sholom, Las Vegas, NV. Also in 2000, she completed Holocaust, a stainless steel sculpture (14 ft. 3 in., 4.5 tons), installed in Las Vegas, NV. In 2003 her bronze sculpture, Ner Tamid, was installed in Temple Adat Ami, Las Vegas, NV. Snakewash, a cor-ten steel ground sculpture (62 ft.), was completed in November 2003. Abbey fabricated steel sculptures and cast small and large bronzes from 2004 through the present. In 2006 she completed and installed Guardian of All Directions, a stainless steel sculpture (14 ft., 1.5 tons). The Guggenheim Hermitage Museum and Young Collectors Council visited the studio and home of Rita Deanin Abbey, Las Vegas, Nevada October 15, 2006. During March 2008, Women's History Month, Abbey was recognized for her contributions to the Arts by Mayor Goodman and Members of the Las Vegas City Council. Hidden Pass, a 2-inch steel plate sculpture (16 x 28 ft. 8 in. x 13 ft., 22 tons), was installed in 2010. Between July 16-December 23, 2011, Abbey exhibited in Blast from the Past, '60s & '70s Geometric Abstraction at Palm Springs Art Museum, Palm Springs, California. The City of Las Vegas Office of Cultural Affairs, Las Vegas Arts Commission presented Abbey the Lifetime Achievement Award for Excellence in the Arts on May 25, 2012. Balanced Arc, an outdoor bronze sculpture (8ft. 8 in. x 9 ft. x 7 ft. 4 in., 1600 lbs.), completed in 2012, was installed in April 2013. The Western Museums Association 2014 Annual Meeting in Las Vegas, NV, toured The Art of Rita Deanin Abbey at the Desert Space Museum October 5, 2014. Abbey participated in the fall group exhibition Macrocosm/Microcosm: Abstract Expressionism in the American Southwest at the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art, University of Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma, October 2, 2014-January 4, 2015. Her artwork was also shown in the Recent Acquisitions exhibition at the Marjorie Barrick Museum, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, June 19-September 19, 2015. Currently, Abbey is working on new sculptures, paintings, and enamels. vii

From the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated, Theta Theta Omega Chapter Records (MS-01014) -- Chapter records file.

Las Vegas tourists who stop to admire the Mirage volcano, the Bellagio conservatory, the Wynn Las Vegas mountain, the Encore gardens, and the iconic Welcome to Las Vegas sign’s surroundings on the Las Vegas Strip likely do not realize that in each case they have sampled a unique landscape environment conceived by Don Brinkerhoff of Lifescapes International, Newport Beach, California. It is for producing work of this caliber that in 2016 the American Gaming Association selected Brinkerhoff to be the first designer inducted into the Gaming Hall of Fame. In this interview, the Los Angeles native and son of a working-class father and an artist/schoolteacher mother, explains how he spent his youth in an owner-built house in the modest suburb of El Monte, where he tended the family truck garden. Despite earning his degree in ornamental horticulture at California Polytechnic (Cal Poly), Don felt unschooled in the arts because the small school did not teach them. To fill that educational gap, Don took his wife and four children to Europe for two years, where he affiliated with the American Academy in Rome and worked for TAC (The Architects' Collaborative) in Greece among other adventures. The family spent another six months in Hawaii, where the children attended school and Don worked with a local landscape architect. The family’s unusual work, school, and travel experience more than completed Don’s arts education and shaped his world view and that of his daughter Julie in countless ways that came to silently benefit the Las Vegas built environment. Upon returning to California in 1968, Brinkerhoff opened his Orange County office, and Lifescapes International became the “go-to” firm to create water features for condominium projects. This work led to his first hotel-casino project at a Sun City golf course condominium project in South Africa, which in turn led to a telephone call from architect Joel Bergman inviting him to become one of three candidate landscape architects to work with Steve Wynn on what would become The Mirage hotel-casino in Las Vegas. Here, Brinkerhoff speaks to his design philosophy as ninety percent problem-solving and ten percent inspiration even as he describes organizing the signature tree for The Mirage, building the Mirage volcano, taking the idea for Bellagio’s conservatory from the DuPont family’s Longwood Gardens, of creating faux banyans in the Mirage atrium, of creating the model for the Las Vegas Strip median, and of building the mountain on Las Vegas Boulevard in front of Wynn Las Vegas to conceal the Cloud at the Fashion Show Mall. While the fortunes of Lifescapes International continue to grow and succeed worldwide, both Don and Julie credit Steve Wynn and their Las Vegas work: “Las Vegas has totally changed our lives.”