On August 9, 1984, collector Elizabeth N. Patrick recorded an address by local long time educator, Harvey N. Dondero (born November 12, 1909 in Hawthorne, Nevada) before the Kiwanis Club at the Fremont Hotel in Las Vegas. This address includes Dondero’s observations on the growth of the school system in Las Vegas, Nevada. After the address, Dondero receives a Distinguished Service Award, from the Kiwanis Club of Uptown Las Vegas, as a token of appreciation for his fifty-three years of dedication to children and youth education in Nevada. Dondero also answers questions posed by audience members, regarding the future of Nevada’s education system.

Kenneth Fong reflects on growing up in Las Vegas and being the son of two successful and philanthropic community members, Wing and Lilly Fong. When Ken was born the family live in a modest home on 20th and Stewart. It was a close-knit neighborhood and era, kids played tag and roamed freely. When he entered third-grade, his parents moved their family to a newer subdivision near Rancho and West Charleston Avenue: the Scotch 80s. Their new custom home on Silver Avenue reflected Asian architecture and the family’s Chinese cultural heritage; it also included a pool and a small basketball court. Memories of the neighborhoods are distinct. He learned to be comfortable with his sister and he being the only Asian Americans in school at the time. He kept busy with community volunteering at Sunrise Hospital and tutoring younger children on the Westside among other high school activities. Ken speaks lovingly of his parents and their achievements, family outings to local venues such as Mount Charleston and Red Rock and to California, where they bought Chinese baked goods. His mother, Lilly was born into a large Chinese American family of ten children, each of whom achieved a college education. After her marriage to Wing, she moved to Las Vegas with plans to work as a teacher. Ken retells the story of her encounter with discrimination and overcoming that, and her trajectory to be the first Asian American elected the Nevada Board of Regents. His orphaned father, Wing, immigrated to the United Sates in 1939 to live with uncles. They worked as cooks in Las Vegas and established the first Las Vegas Chinese restaurant, Silver Café. Wing was merely thirteen years old and spoke no English. These were not to be obstacles. He would go on to graduate from Las Vegas High School, earn a college degree in business, have a successful career in commercial real estate and banking, building the notable Fong’s Garden. Ken calls his father his most influential mentor. Today Ken is also a successful in real estate management, active at Grace Presbyterian Church, involved in Rotary Club, and a proud father of two daughters.

Dr. Donald Baepler was born in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada in July of 1932. The family moved to Springfield, Illinois in 1936, where his father was president of Concordia Seminary. Donald decided at the age of seven that he wanted to pursue a Ph.D. in ornithology, not an unusual goal in his family. By the time he graduated high school, he knew that he wanted to attend Carlton College in Minnesota to study under Olin Sewall Pettingill. He followed world-famous ornithologist and artist George Sutton to Michigan and then to Oklahoma to complete his doctorate. In 1960, having completed his doctorate, Donald met with a recruiter from Las Vegas. It seemed like an intriguing place, so he took the interview and was offered a job on the spot. Instead, he took a job as professor of biology at Central Washington University, and within four years was vice president for administration and business. He had also been appointed to an accrediting team by the Northwest Association to accredit colleges in the western states, including Nevada Southern University in Las Vegas, and saw the growing town and university for the first time in 1965. Two years later, he was invited to take the job of Academic Vice President at SNU, which he accepted, and he and his family made the move to Las Vegas in 1968. Upon arriving in Las Vegas, Donald discovered that he had been named acting president because of Donald Moyer's abrupt resignation. He simply decided to do both jobs. He was successful in changing the name of the school to University of Nevada Las Vegas so that it would not be confused with a teacher's college. This was wholeheartedly accepted by the regents. Once Roman Zom was appointed president in 1969, Donald went back to the vice president position. In 1973, Dr. Baepler was appointed president of UNLV. He held that position for live years and then turned in his resignation. His intent was to teach, focus on a Museum of Natural History, and start a research center. Instead, he was offered the chancellorship of the university system, and he decided to accept the job By 1981, Donald was ready to return to teaching and research, so he resigned as chancellor and came back full-time as museum director and professor of biology. He built up a high-hazard chemistry lab and got the grant monies to sustain it. Dr. Baepler was also influential in adding the Harry Reid Center to the museum. Today Dr. Baepler is still involved with the bird program and gives advice to graduate students, but he no longer teaches. He stays occupied with a private consulting business.