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Fildes, John, 1955-
John Fildes, MD, FACS, FCCM, FPCS (Hon) is the Professor and Inaugural Chair of the Department of Surgery at the Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine at the University of Nevada Las Vegas. In addition, he was the Interim Associate Dean for External Affairs, serving from September 2019 through April 2020.
Person
White, Lee A., 1946-
Lee White played professional football for the NY Jets, Los Angeles Rams, and San Diego Chargers. He returned to Las Vegas and entered the hotel casino industry as a dealer retiring twenty-five years later as a Vice President of Casino Operations.
Person
Drew, Barbara Jean, 1943-
Barbara Drew is the dean of the Academy for Ministers, teaches Bible study, and performs other spiritual work at New Jerusalem Worship Center. Drew migrated to Las Vegas from Fortune Fork, Louisiana, just two miles outside the city limits of Tallulah. She traveled by car where passengers slept, ate, and talked about their new lives-to-be. She lived with an aunt on D and Monroe in a shack with a butane stove and no indoor toilet. Her first job was at American Linen.
Person
Harris, Asalee, 1933-
Asalee Harris was born in Fortune Fork, a little place outside of Tallulah, Louisiana, on the road to Vicksburg, Mississippi. A family of sharecroppers, the cotton farming was arduous and eventually they moved to Tallulah. She married and her husband's brothers lived in Las Vegas so in 1954 Asalee and James joined them.
Person
Bañuelos-Benitez, Laurents, 1994-
Las Vegas native and graduate of Clark High School; son of Mexican and Salvadoran immigrants. High school English teacher at Rancho and former student worker on the Latinx Voices project.
Person
Franco, Dick, 1952-
Richard Francis or Dick Franco, his stage name, by which he is more commonly known, has been juggling for over 50 years, having learned the art while he was still in high school. Taught by prominent juggling legends in Vaudeville and Las Vegas, Franco would go on to perform all over the world. He began as an opening act with the Harlem Globetrotters in the US, but would go on to perform throughout Europe and was featured in variety and production shows in Blackpool, London, Monte Carlo, Berlin, and many other cities.
Person
Mun, Cynthia, 1967-
Born in the 1960s near Seoul, South Korea, Cynthia Mun was the oldest of her parents' three children. The family immigrated in 1974, after which Mun's siblings were born. She speaks of her mother's work as a seamstress in a Los Angeles Garment District sweatshop and her father's work as a janitor before he was employed as an electrician. She credits teachers and mentors in Los Angeles, who encouraged her and gave her the tools succeed at Westridge School in Pasadena and at Yale University.
Person
Makino, Kaku, 1943-
Kaku Makino, the King of Japanese Buffet, was born in 1943 and raised in Tokyo, Japan, in a traditional, wealthy family. After surviving mumps at age four, he suffered a severe hearing loss. His father encouraged Kaku to play baseball, and he excelled. But his father died when Kaku was twenty years old, and, the oldest of four sons, he had to support the family, and he became a chef--an occupation he followed for twenty years in Tokyo before following his younger brothers to the U.S. in 1989.
Person
Kano, Julie, 1957-
Alternate Names
Julie Kano, was born and raised in Ootsu city in Shiga Prefecture, Japan. Wanting to experience life outside her town of 600 people, Julie migrated to Los Angeles and enrolled at Cal State Northridge to become a social worker. She did not complete her studies, but she did meet and marry her first husband and gave birth to her son. She arrived in Las Vegas in 2000 and now handles the business end of the restaurant Makino.
Person
Tao, Jerry, 1968-
Born in Taiwan, naturalized citizen and District Court Judge Jerry Tao's family exemplifies the ways political systems affect people on the ground. Tao's grandfather wrote speeches for Chiang-Kai-shek until the mid-1960s, when Mao Zedong's Communist party began purging leaders of the previous regime. As a high-ranking government official, Tao's grandfather left China under threat of death and settled in Taiwan.
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