It was spring vacation 1971 when Mary Hausch arrived in Las Vegas with four girlfriends. As a Ohio University senior, the closing of college campuses due to anti-Vietnam War protests had given her a reprieve from final tests and papers. The spontaneity of the trip and her enjoyment of the weather resulted in her applying for, and getting, a reporter position at the Las Vegas Review-Journal. For the next nineteen years, she worked her way up the newspaper ladder, covered local education issues that included desegregation, a groundbreaking series of POW-MIA war stories, and the Nevada legislature. She became the first woman city editor and managing editor of the newspaper. Her career journey was not always smooth. It was an era of cultural roadblocks and emerging feminism. Eventually, Mary was passed over for the ultimate appointment of R-J editor and was placated with a short-lived "associate editor" position. She describes the ensuing civil rights complaints and how she segued into teaching at UNLV. During her robust journalism career, Mary's personal life also hit some rocky times, but ended happily when she met and married Bob Coffin, a then reporter for the newspaper. [Bob is interviewed separately for this John S. Park neighborhood series.] The couple bought the Gubler House in John S. Park and Mary describes the charm of the house as well as the neighborhood, historically and currently. Mary was a tireless participant in the efforts to have John S. Park designated a historic neighborhood. This two-part interview paints a picture of a community that has weathered various phases from what she calls the "widow phase" to the "homeless" to the rebirth stirred by new residents. She also offers advice and thoughts for those looking to achieve the historic designation for their neighborhood.

Larry Henley was born in Portland, Oregon, in 1957. The family spent one year in Wisconsin, and then moved to Las Vegas in 1973 when he was 15. His schooling was mostly in Oregon, though he graduated from Chaparral High School in Las Vegas in Larry enrolled at UNLV in 1975 and was a student there off and on until 1980, the year he earned his theater degree. It wasn't until around 2002 that he got his master's. Mr. Henley started working at the concert hall at UNLV around 1977, doing lighting design work, then moved to Colorado Springs for three years. He opened the Pike s Peak Center, acting as stage manager and lighting technician, and eventually joined the stagehands' union. While in Colorado Springs, he was married, and he and his wife had a son. The Henleys moved back to Las Vegas so they could be closer to family, and Larry began working part-time on the stage crew at UNLV. He was listed as a classified employee, and this segued into a professional staff position in 1988. Today, Larry is the director of artistic programming and production at the Performing Arts Center. He schedules all performances in the theaters. He also does contracting and billing, works on the Master Series, and recruits speakers for the Barrick Lecture Series. He has made a 20 year career out of bringing entertainment and culture to the Las Vegas scene, continuing a tradition started by other directors.

Dr. Thomas Holder grew up in San Diego, completed graduate work at the University of Washington, and then spent a year in Europe painting. Upon returning to the States, he checked out job opportunities in Las Vegas and San Diego. The chance to build a program from scratch appealed to him and he settled at UNLV in 1971. Tom has seen many changes in the university, the art program, and the city itself. He has encouraged students to show their work in various venues around Las Vegas and is always searching out new places to exhibit. In addition to staying current with his own work, Tom supports First Friday and a visiting artist program. To ensure quality education for Nevada students and to encourage enrollment at UNLV, he oversees a new project called "August in the Schools". Faculty members go out into the area high schools to speak about the art program and invite the students to attend Today, Dr. Holder is chairing the art department, works on a self-study of the department for the purpose of accreditation with the Nat'l Association of Schools of Art and Design, and continues with his own artistic endeavors. He plans to travel with his family as well.

Nancy Claire Houssels, co-founder of Nevada Ballet Theater and board member of The Smith Center for the Performing Arts, the UNLV Foundation, International Women’s Forum, and the Women’s Leadership Council United Way, first arrived in Las Vegas in 1966 as a 31-year-old to dance in Frederic Apcar’s Casino de Paris show at the Dunes. After nearly two years in Las Vegas, she left and vowed to never return. However, Maynard Sloate, producer of the new Folies Bergère at the Tropicana came to New York to entice Nancy and her dance partner to return to Las Vegas in 1968 to open the show. Her relationship with Las Vegas took an unexpected turn after she had dinner with the man who signed her paycheck, hotel owner, J. Kell Houssels Jr., and his divorce lawyer. J. K. Houssels fired Nancy and they married in her home town of Piedmont, California, in 1970. Since that time the Houssels have lived in Ward 1’s Rancho Circle. Houssels shares the history of Rancho Circle, which began in the 1940s as a racially restricted area. Rancho Circle has its own security and homeowners draw water from the Rancho Circle Water Cooperative, but there are no CC&Rs because homeowners have not agreed on them. Formerly a volunteer at Childhaven Nancy co-founded the Nevada Dance Theater (now Nevada Ballet Theater) with Vassili Sulich in 1972. The group performed at the Judy Bayley Theatre and Artemus Ham Hall at UNLV but extensive community outreach and grants from Summa Corporation and the Don Reynolds Foundation earned the group a permanent home facility in Summerlin. See “Downtown Las Vegas Living: Tour Nancy and Kell Houssels estate!”

Debra March was born in Detroit, Michigan, in 1953. She is one of eight siblings all of whom attended Catholic school as children and eventually went on to professional careers. Debra's father worked for the city of Detroit, then moved to Las Vegas and was hired by the Clark County School District. He ultimately retired from there. Debra came to Las Vegas for the first time in 1973. Though she left for a couple of years, she eventually settled here and attended UNLV, earning an undergraduate degree in anthropology and biology. She then served a little over six years as a park ranger in Red Rock and Lake Tahoe. While at Lake Tahoe, Debra got her real estate license. She followed her husband to Ely, where she became a social worker. She ran the welfare division for rural Nevada in several counties and also kept her real estate license active. In 1989, Debra applied for the position of administrator of the Nevada Real Estate Division in Las Vegas. In her capacity as deputy administrator, Debra oversaw the activities of individuals who sold real estate. She and others in the division also monitored land sales time-shares, campground memberships and appraisers. She served in that position for four and a half years. In 1996, Debra was hired at UNLV. Many of the faculty members in the real estate school today are the ones who were there when she was hired, such as Mike Clauretie, Dick Hoyt, and Bob Aalberts. The Lied Institute, which she directs, supports an academic program in real estate and finance. It also conducts research, addresses community issues such as affordable housing, and offers adult and executive education programs. Debra is very involved in addressing many of the problems of housing and transportation that affect everyone living in the valley. In addition to heading the Lied Institute, she is also a Henderson planning commissioner, serves on the National Board of the American Planning Association, and is vice chairman of the board of the Urban Land Institute. She is proud of having established a real estate mentoring program that matches students with industry professionals, and she works closely with students to help them with their career goals.

Ramon "Ray" Martinez was born in Park City, Utah, but spent part of his childhood in Pioche Nevada. His mother and father both worked in aircraft factories and the Navy shipyards during WWII. Ray graduated from high school in 1953 and went on to the University of Utah on a Munich Scholarship. Before graduation he joined the Air Force, became an electronics technician, and got married. In 1959, Ramon left the Air Force and re-enrolled in college, graduating in 1964 During this time he supported his growing family by working for the FAA and teaching' at Weltech College. After college, he worked for a short while and then entered an electronics technology program near Rochester, New York. It was during this period that he saw an ad for department chair in electronics technology at Nevada Southern University. In 1968, Ray interviewed at Nevada Southern and was hired. He and his family moved to Las Vegas and he began teaching mechanical engineering courses like status and dynamics. He used NSF summer grants to further his education with two summers at Louisiana State and Utah State, and then two summers at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, where he completed his master's degree. Ramon was here when Nevada Southern University changed its name to University of Nevada Las Vegas and the engineering department became part of the College of Math and Science. He made the move out of trailers into a high-tech building, has seen the change from slide rules and calculators to computers, and helped develop master's and PhD programs. He was involved in much of the work of accreditation, and taught his students much more than status and dynamics. He taught them how to negotiate job interviews, write concise technical reports, and be appreciative of the education they received in other disciplines.