Chart showing revised charges to the Las Vegas Land and Water Company from the Union Pacific Railroad Company for the years 1939-1941 and the first nine months of 1942 based on projected and actual water consumption in Las Vegas.

Transcribed Notes: Auditor of Disbursements' Office, Omaha, Nebraska - September 22, 1942.

Interview with Elliot B. Karp by Barbara Tabach on December 17, 2014. In this interview, Elliot Karp discusses growing up in a culturally Jewish household in New York and becoming more observant in his teenage and college years. He decided, after a trip to Israel and a year in a rabbinical program, that he wanted to be a "Jewish professional" with a focus on social work and community organizing, and attended a Master's program at Brandeis University. Karp goes on to talk about his work for the Jewish Federation in Ohio and Pennsylvania, and being recruited to come to Las Vegas. He talks about the challenges in the Las Vegas Jewish community and the Jewish Federation's role as an umbrella organization to partner with other agencies to grow and sustain a robust Jewish community in Southern Nevada.

On October 6, 1955, Elliot Karp was born in Mineola, New York to parents of East European heritage who identified as culturally Jewish. As a teenager, Elliot felt the calling to become kosher, balancing this practice with household norms that were not as strict. He eventually became shomer Shabbat just after enrolling at State University of New York at Stony Brook, where he majored in Political Science. After graduating from SUNY, Elliot spent a year living in Israel considering a path in rabbinical studies. By the end of his time, he decided on a different, yet related path, and registered as a graduate student in Brandeis University's School of Jewish Communal Service, on fellowship from Council of Jewish Federations. After graduating, Elliot moved to Columbus, Ohio to work for the Jewish Federation, focusing on fundraising, but was exposed to many different operational areas of the organization. After three years, Elliot was recruited to the Philadelphia office as its director of leadership development. He then left the Federation to work in development at Brandeis University, but after two years, returned to the Federation as the Cincinnati office's chief development officer. In 2008, Elliot received a call to take his highly cultivated leadership and fundraising skills to another Federation office: Las Vegas. After much consideration, he took the job - and challenge - as the office's new chief executive officer. Since then, Elliot has done much to promote communication, coordination and collaboration within the local Jewish community and beyond, through relationship building and successful fundraising efforts. His ultimate desire is to expand funding for programs that get more people involved in Jewish life - while also empowering community members define what a Jewish life means for them.

R. Ian Ross, better known as Ross, and wife Irmalee have dedicated their lives to serving, and improving, their community. Both Ross and Irmalee’s families moved to Las Vegas, from Los Angeles and Reno respectively, drawn by the opportunities presenting themselves in the growing city. While in college, Ross would spend his summers as busboy at the Sands hotel, where his mother worked as beauty consultant and salesperson. Ross attended law school, and soon after finishing, started a law firm with Jerry Snyder and Oscar Goodman. After a couple of years, Ross took a position with the City Attorney’s Office while also starting his own private firm. He later served as an assemblyman in 1977-78. In addition to his work as an attorney, Ross has engaged in various real estate ventures over the years, largely in North Las Vegas. He served as the president of the North Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce, and dedicated himself to developing this part of town. During this time, Irmalee was an active member in various social organizations, including Junior League, of which she still is a member. Having lived in Las Vegas for over 50 years, from ‘mob days’ to the present, Ross and Irmalee have accumulated unique experiences, and developed keen insights, about the growth, change and development of Las Vegas. Unlike others, they embrace the city’s continuing evolution as a community.

Born in the coal fields of Strunk, Kentucky, Audrey Aline Messer Wickman first visited the West at twelve years of age. She moved to western Colorado to help in her grandparents’ home for a couple of years. The stay made a lasting impression because she only returned to her birthplace for a short time after that. In Colorado, she graduated from high school, met her future husband, and married in 1925. They came to southern Nevada in 1932 so that Robert Wickman could find work on Hoover Dam. Audrey Wickman joined the Mesquite Club in 1936 and has remained a member to date. She started the Literary Committee as a forum to share book reviews and hear speakers. She served as President of the club for 1947-48 and chose the year’s theme “Know your Neighbor.” In the post-war society, women’s involvement in civic affairs was particularly needed, she told the membership at the opening fall meeting. “The troubles which unsettle the world today are primarily ones which lie within the sphere of women’s business. They are matters of housekeeping, teaching and health. . . . The time has come when we as a nation cannot stay in our own backyards. . . . If we are to be good world citizens, local, state and national, we must first be good home citizens. These responsibilities call for knowledge, an appreciation of other points of view, and attitudes of good will and cooperation.” (Las Vegas Review Journal, 6 October 1947, Mesquite Club microfilm collection.) The duties of the president varied during those years. She recalled that “I was janitor, gardener and President.” During the wintertime, she remembered, “you had to have heat [for Friday’s meeting] and I’d go up on Thursday afternoon and light that old oil burning stove and then pray that it didn’t catch the place on fire all night.” She continued her commitment to club work by serving as state secretary for the Nevada Federation of Women’s Clubs. The friendships and cultural events which came from Mesquite Club and Federation membership proved to be of lasting value for this community builder. This interview has been produced with the assistance of the Mesquite Club and the History Department of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. It is part of a series on women community builders in Las Vegas. The transcript has been edited only slightly for clarity while the syntax and style of the narrator were retained.