Robert Gore first came to Las Vegas in 1973 as a public affairs officer with the Air Force. He returned to West Virginia to go into the family business in 1976 and four years later was offered a job with Summa Corporation. Back in Las Vegas, he also served as director of the Air Force Association. At a dinner meeting of the Association, Retired General Bill Becker suggested that an engineering school was needed at UNLV. Bob and the Air Force Association put together a group called FORGE, whose primary purpose was to promote a school of engineering. Bob Gore, Dave Broxterman, John Heilman and others began researching the idea of building an engineering school. They drew the interest of people at the Test Site, Nellis Air Force Base, and PEPCON, and put together a slide show and a binder full of research data. Bob and Dave presented their information to the Nevada Development Authority and Nevada legislators, and started a grassroots campaign to enlist the support of the people of Nevada. Bob gives details on the efforts that FORGE and many other individuals made on behalf of the engineering school. He takes readers into the myriad meetings that were held and the important associations that were forged with people like Tom Beam Lawrence Livermore Laboratories, the DOE, Jim Cashman, Mary Hausch of the Las Vegas Review Journal, Channel 3, Bob Thomas, and numerous others. The interviewer, Dr. David Emerson, was involved in this effort as well, and shares anecdotes concerning donations from a mining company and Reynolds Electrical and Engineering Company. Today Bob is working with a real estate company in Las Vegas. Twenty-some years later, he still recalls the hard work and dedication of people like Benet Stout, on loan from Senator Chic Hecht's staff, the legislators who unanimously cosponsored the bill initiating the building project, and the original FORGE group who gave their all to the idea of a school of engineering at UNLV.

When John Gubler's parents moved to Las Vegas in 1936, it was a simple desert community of only six or seven thousand people. John's father practiced law and his mother raised the four Gubler sons. Home was in the John S. Park area. It was a fenceless neighborhood where everyone knew each other. Parents worked hard at their various jobs and kids played on the barren stretches of desert shooting BB guns, exploring artesian wells and playing games. As the gaming industry and the city grew, the Gubler household focused on education and family. It was a life of freedom and no TV. They were a family raised in Mormon values. John went on to become a lawyer and move back to raise his own family here. Today he lives on the western side of the valley. He explains that as an adult when he drives through John S. Park Neighborhood, "I live in the past." It was a good life. As John reminiscences about growing up from the 1940s thru 1960s, his observations are vivid and range from local

Dr. Blair Hale has been practicing dentistry in Las Vegas for over thirty years. He was born in Idaho in 1949, the third of four children born to Zendal McKay and Lenny Raymond Hale. His education includes semesters at BYU, El Camino City College, and a dental degree from Washington University. Dr. Hale recounts his experiences as an undergraduate at Washington University in Missouri, living in a dorm situation and signing for government loans. He also examines his early days in Las Vegas and the ease with which he obtained bank loans to start his business back in 1976. At that time there were relatively few dentists practicing in Las Vegas, and when he was the dentist society president in 1985, he knew most dentists by name. Blair explains his work with the Academy of LDS Dentists, which sends groups of dentists to Guatemala, Peru, Honduras, and the Dominican Republic to run week-long free clinics. The clinics not only treat the dental problems of the populace, but also serve as instructional seminars for local practitioners. In addition to running a practice and doing charitable work outside the country, Dr. Hale also teaches at UNLV's dental clinic one day per week. He describes the changes in technology, technique, and materials over the years, and the quality education future dentists receive at UNLV. He also delineates the differences dental work can make in a patient's life, not just aesthetically but emotionally and physically as well. Dr. Hale comments on the dynamics behind the large influx of dentists in the 90s, the future of health care in Las Vegas, and the impact of third-party carriers in the dental profession. He believes that dentistry is a wonderful profession and that students can receive an excellent education at any good dental school in the United States. His sons are contemplating following him into this field.