Terry Miller-Newcomb was born at Southern Nevada Memorial Hospital in Las Vegas, Nevada. Her grandparents on both sides were Nevada residents, and her mother and father were born in Reno and McGill, respectively. Her younger sister Linda was born at Sunrise Hospital shortly after it opened. Terry vividly remembers the way Vegas was in the '50s, '60s, and '70s. Las Vegas was very small in the '50s, and one of the town's boundaries was Tropicana Avenue. Beyond that was dirt road and desert. Terry and her sister and friends rode horses out in that area. Terry's father, Chub Drakulich, taught drafting and Phys Ed and coached the basketball team at Rancho High School from 1955 to 1958. Her mother, Theresa Drakulich, was hired at the new Ruby S. Thomas Elementary School to teach kindergarten. Terry attended kindergarten through second grades at Tom Williams, and from third grade on went to Ruby Thomas E.S. Her junior high school years were spent at Orr Middle School, and she attended Valley High School through graduation. "Chub" Drakulich was hired at Southern Nevada University (now UNLV) in 1958 to start the Phys Ed program there. Terry remembers Frazier Hall and the old gym where she played on the gymnastics equipment while her father conducted basketball practice. Her parents would host a party every Christmas as part of the basketball Holiday Classic program. Terry chose to attend UNR after she graduated high school in 1974. She was hired at R&R Advertising in the summer of '78 and worked at the Reno office for two years. She then transferred to the Las Vegas office to work as account executive. She oversaw all advertising for Democrat and Republican campaigns, including road signs, radio and TV spots, and billboards. Between 1984 and 1987 Terry made several major changes in her life. She started a master's program in a totally new area, worked as a church administrator for an income, and was remarried. She finished her master's in 1987 and opened a private practice in marriage and family therapy in 1988, which she continues with today. Her oldest daughter is currently enrolled at UNLV on the Millennium Scholarship.

Dr. Tony Miranda grew up in Santa Maria and Santa Barbara, California. His father was a chef at the Santa Maria Inn, and the rest of the family spent summers picking strawberries in the surrounding fields. He has a sister who earned a degree in psychology from UCLA, and he credits her voracious early reading habits for inspiring him to continue with his education. Dr. Miranda married and worked as a postman for a while, then began taking night school classes in order to obtain his high school diploma. He liked school so much that he continued at Long Beach City College, then Cal State Long Beach to earn his bachelor's degree. He was offered several fellowships and chose SC on a Teacher Corps fellowship. A friend informed him of an NIMH doctoral fellowship at UCLA, and he chose to take it. In 1976, before he finished the doctoral program, Tony applied for a teaching position at UNLV. He was accepted provisionally, meaning he had to complete his doctoral dissertation in one year. He successfully completed his doctorate and was offered a tenured track position. Dr. Miranda taught Introduction to Chicano Literature for a year, and then took a post-doctoral ethnic studies course at UC Santa Barbara. He returned to UNLV to teach, served as faculty senator, and held the position of chair of the anthropology and ethnic studies department from 1993 until 2004. Today he is revising his book on Hispanics of Southern Nevada and teaching three classes. His second wife has been retired since 1995, having spent 16 years with SIIS. When he retires, they will continue to make Las Vegas their home.

Richard Morgan was born in Fresno, California. His parents moved to the San Francisco Bay area a few months later, where Richard grew up and attended grade school and high school. His father had moved there for the express purpose of giving his children the opportunity to attend U.C. Berkeley. Richard did in fact graduate from Berkeley in 1967 with a degree in political science. After college, Richard married and he and his wife worked for a year to save money to send him to law school. His wife supported him while he studied law at UCLA Law School from 1968 to 1971. After graduation Richard worked for two different law firms, eventually choosing Nausaman and Waters, Scott, Kruger & Reardon. He worked there for 9 years, making partner in 1977. In 1980, Richard left the law firm to teach corporations and commercial law at Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona. For three years he was an associate professor, and in 1983 was asked to take the position of associate dean. He accepted and held that position for four years. He then became dean at the University of Wyoming College of Law in Laramie, Wyoming. After 2 !/2 years, he was asked to return to ASU as dean of the law school, where he worked for 7 years. In 1997, Richard learned that UNLV was planning to start a law school. Remembering the advice of friends Booker Evans and Willard Pedrick to seize the opportunity to be a founding dean, he applied for the job. He met with Rick Brown, Christine Smith, Mary Berkheiser, and Dianne Retsell to come up with a general strategy for building a law school. Rick became the founding law library director and is currently a professor of law, Christine is associate dean for student affairs and operations, Mary is a clinician and faculty member, and Dianne became Richard's executive assistant. Richard and the other founding members recruited quality faculty members and with Carol Harter's influence, Bill Boyd's support, and aggressive advertising, the law school took shape. They achieved provisional accreditation in 2000 and then full accreditation with the ABA in the summer of '02 after the school moved into its present facility. In January of 2004 the Boyd School of Law joined the Association of American Law Schools. Today UNLV's law school offers a night program, a clinical program, the Saltman Center for conflict resolution, and a lawyering process program. The school is well known in the community and has become the community resource the founding members envisioned it to be. Richard believes the school will continue as it was begun—with an emphasis on excellence and progress.

Dr. Donald Moyer was born on a farm in Central Illinois. His parents were farmers, but moved to Decatur, Illinois, when Donald was six. Consequently, he went to grade school and high school in Decatur. He then earned a bachelor's degree at the University of Illinois in Champaign, Illinois. His master's and PhD were taken in psychology at the University of Chicago. Dr. Moyer has had a long and illustrious career. After college he helped raise money and students for the University of Chicago and then moved to Portales, New Mexico as director of finance for higher education in the state government. He next served as president of Eastern New Mexico University for five years. From there he came to UNLV in 1965 as chancellor/president, a position he held for 3 years, and worked in marriage and family counseling for almost 30 years right here in Las Vegas. He spent a year in the Los Angeles area doing commercial psychology, and then became vice president at University of Alaska, working there for 7 years. While president, Dr. Moyer focused much of his energy getting regents, community members, and the faculty and student body to recognize the needs of the university. His wife's contributions to this effort were invaluable, as she made their home a warm and inviting place. By bringing these people together into a cohesive unit, monies could be raised to add buildings, staff, and schools that would enhance the quality of education, raise the reputation of the university, and develop UNLV into a leading institution. Much of Dr. Moyer's work during his time as president was "emancipating" UNLV from UNR. This meant creating a faculty senate working only for UNLV, having regents who really represented UNLV, and finding people in the community who would volunteer time and money to carry out the vision of a great university. Today Dr. Moyer and his wife enjoy living in Las Vegas. They stay current on what's happening at UNLV by attending meetings for retired faculty and administrators. Their two daughters have moved to Las Vegas as well, so they have a rich social and family life. He still practices marriage and family counseling, and sees UNLV as a school which will continue to grow in reputation and stature.

Paulette R. Nelson's life in Las Vegas is a contrast of images. She recalls riding her horse across the wide-open desert, as well as embracing the technological changes that rapidly impacted the UNLV library. Paulette honed her life skills as farm girl growing up just south of Mandan, North Dakota. She attended North Dakota State University. A post-graduation summer as a volunteer in Kenya, sparked an interest in adventure and travel and she enlisted for four years in the U.S. Air Force. Rather than enter as an officer, she opted to be enlisted personnel so that she could receive technical training. In 1981, Paulette migrated to Las Vegas, where she had friends at Nellis Air Force Base. She worked at the Nevada Test Site for the next two years. Then, while looking for a new job so that she could pursue an engineering degree, she was offered a position in the UNLV library cataloging department. It was a career path change that she never regretted. She eventually became the Supervisor of the Architecture Studies Library; a position she held for nine years until her retirement Among the highlights of her career was being involved in the change to an electronic catalog system and being on the planning committee for Lied Library.

Dr. Steven Parker grew up and went to school in Connecticut. His parents were caterers and taught him a solid work ethic through example. His only sibling was finishing a post doctorate at Yale and had accepted a job at one of the Cal State schools when his life was tragically ended. Steven graduated from Assumption College in Massachusetts with a bachelor's in political science and got a scholarship to State University of New York at Albany. About hallway through his Master of Public Administration degree, the dean encouraged him to go on for his doctorate. He finished his PhD in 1971, and got a job at Western Illinois University which he started on September 15, 1971, the same day his son was born. Alter 8 years (and another child) in Illinois, Steve and his wife were ready to leave. He had attended a public administration conference in Baltimore in the spring of 1975, and was interviewed by Dina Titus and Tom Wright of UNLV. He had several other job offers, but UNLV looked like the best possibility, so he and his family moved to Las Vegas. Dr. Parker's title at UNLV was associate professor and department chair, although Dina Titus actually chaired the department his first semester here. He took over as chair in the spring of 1980. Steven started when Brock Dixon was interim chair, and has served under university presidents Leonard "Pat" Goodall, Bob Maxson, and Carol Harter. Today Dr. Parker teaches American Presidency and American government every semester, Natural Resource Policy and Political Corruption and Political Ethics once or twice a year, and occasionally teaches Urban Government. He also continues as the director of the University Forum Lecture Series, which was initiated by Tom Wright more than 23 years ago.

Carrie Townley Porter, a 6th generation Texan, was born in Central Texas near present-day Fort Hood. Her father, a highway patrolman, was called into the Army Reserve in 1940 and spent some years moving around the country. At one point, his wife and children stayed in Belton, Texas tor three years because her father was transferred to places they couldn't go. Carrie finished high school in Austin, Texas, and attended two years at University of Texas in Austin. She left college to get married, and she and her geologist husband lived in Kansas, Oklahoma City, and Albuquerque. He took a job with the Atomic Energy Commission that required frequent trips to the Nevada Test Site, so the suggestion was made that they just move to Las Vegas. At this point they had three children with no reliable child care so Carrie became a housewife for a while. The Townleys lived a full and active life in Las Vegas and she eventually got hired as a substitute teacher. Carrie mostly subbed at Gibson Junior High School. She decided to finish her degree at Nevada Southern University (now UNLV) after her principal told her that if she could do that, he would have a job waiting for her. Several of the courses that Carrie took were Nevada history correspondence courses from UNR. These courses were prepared and graded by Dr. Russell Elliott. Carrie also fondly remembers two Nevada Southern history professors in particular, Dr. John Wright, whom she considered a mentor, and Rosemary Masick, who taught English history. After receiving her bachelor's, Carrie returned to teaching math at Gibson Jr. High. She started an archaeology club on her own and she and Russ Elliott started the first Trailblazer Club (junior history) in the state. She got students involved in the history of the Native Americans in the area and took them on field trips which gave them a chance to participate in a dig. Carrie has worked in Special Collections in the UNLV library as an archivist, with Sierra Pacific Power Company as a records analyst, and at Caesar's Tahoe as records administrator. She has also been very deeply involved with the Nevada Women's History Project since 1994. This group was responsible for the Sarah Winnemucca Statue Project, which placed a statue of this Native American in Washington, D.C., and a copy of it in the capitol building in Carson City. Today Carrie is doing a collaborative book on Helen J. Stewart with Sally Zanjani. She has done extensive research on Helen Stewart's life, and to this day makes "living history" presentations dressed as Helen J. Stewart. In addition to her history commitments, Carrie still holds onto her records management consulting firm, which she started in 1985.