Claes Oldenburg is an artist and scultpor resposnible for the Flashlight sculpture between the Artemus Ham Concert Hall and the Judy Bayley Theatre on the University of Nevada, Las Vegas campus. He was born in 1929 in Stockholm, Sweden. Because of his father's job as a diplomat, the family moved frequently between the United States and Norway until they settled down in Chicago, Illinois in 1936.
Cynthia Kiser Murphey was the President and Chief Operating Officer (COO) at the New York-New York Hotel and Casino until May 2020. She worked at the New York-New York for twelve years, first joining the company in Human Resources for the Mirage, then moving to the MGM Grand when it opened 1992 as Senior Vice President of Human Resources. She started the MGM Resort Corporate University program as well as the onsite childcare program while at MGM Resorts.
Musical director and arranger Gordon Munford was born June 8, 1929 in California. He was a nine year resident of Las Vegas, a member of the Musicians Union and the American Symphony Orchestra League, and past board member for the Association of Musical Arrangers. Munford directed and conducted more than 65 musicals from off Broadway’s “Little Mary Sunshine” to the Tony Award-winning Broadway hit “1776.”
Susan Hind Ostanik is the daughter of Harold Hind. She witnessed the El Rancho Vegas hotel fire in Las Vegas, Nevada, as her father had brought her to the hotel to witness the event. The resort was destroyed completely early on the morning of June 17, 1960.
Source:
“El Rancho Vegas Hotel Fire,” Clark County Fire Department. 2015. http://www.clarkcountynv.gov/fire/Pages/ElRanchoFire.aspx.