Oral history interview with Steven Kwon conducted by Stefani Evans on October 1, 2024 for the Reflections: the Las Vegas Asian American and Pacific Islander Oral History Project. In this interview, Kwon begins by describing his childhood in Seoul, Korea as the youngest of three children during the Korean conflict. In 1960, he served his compulsory military service, which was 18 months for students. In 1964, he followed a friend's recommendation to go to Denmark and attend the folk high school (now the International People's College) to immerse himself in the Danish language, history, and community. He spent one year at the folk high school and later attended the College of Building Technology at the University of Denmark. While he was in his final year, Las Vegas, Nevada architect James McDaniel recruited him to join his firm, which he did in December 1974. After working with McDaniel for one year, he joined Jack Miller Associates for three years and David Welles/Architronics before opening his own design/build firm, GKG Builders in 1986, which he claims was the first Las Vegas firm to offer both services. Soon after arriving in Las Vegas, he joined the Lions Club and Rotary International and, in 1986 created Southern Nevada's first Asian Chamber of Commerce. He also worked with various politicians at different levels of government to encourage South Korean investment in Las Vegas and Nevada, eventually forming a sister-city relationship between Las Vegas, Nevada, and An San, Korea. Lastly, Kwon recalls how he came to design and build the the International Peace Education Center (IPEC) on Bermuda Road for the Reverend Sun Myung Moon, founder of the Unification Church, shortly before Moon passed away.
The Michael Athanasoglou Collection on Taxi Driver Rights (1979-1983) contains the records of Las Vegas, Nevada taxicab activist Michael Athanasoglou. Included are clippings, correspondence, fliers, and memoranda that document Athanasoglou’s struggle to organize taxi drivers into a union in Las Vegas.
The C. D. Baker Engineering Field Notebooks are comprised of the notebooks and informational texts Charles Duncan "C. D." Baker created and used between 1909 and 1966 while he served as the County Surveyor for Clark County, Nevada and the City Engineer for Las Vegas, Nevada. The field notebooks contain survey coordinates and elevation data for much of early Las Vegas and provide important information on early property boundaries, historical elevations, and lengths of streets from the 1920s to the 1960s. There are also oversized right of way maps for Clark County, Nevada.
The James Bilbray Papers contain materials dating from 1979 to 2003, with the bulk of material dating from 1983 to 1985 during Bilbray’s service in the Nevada State Senate. It includes correspondence from constituents, correspondence from Bilbray, legislative materials, and fiscal reports presented to the Senate Finance Committee. The collection also contains a small number of reports from the Congressional Research Service.
The Nevada Political Buttons Collection contains campaign buttons from 1972 to 2000. The collection includes buttons for political candidates at the federal, state, and local levels, including Bill Clinton and Al Gore for President of the United States, Harry Reid for United States Senate from Nevada, Bob Miller for governor of Nevada, and various candidates for Nevada's state legislature and other elected positions. The collection also contains buttons from some of Nevada's local political organizations, including Las Vegas, Nevada's branch of the Culinary Union, Nevada Fair Pay Coalition, and No Nuclear in Nevada.
The Dorothy Dorothy papers (approximately 1913-1986) document the life of singer, songwriter, columnist, pilot, and farmer, Dorothy Dorothy. Materials contain genealogy records, correspondence, business and organizational records, local history, sheet music, artifacts, and two boxes of photographic prints. Also included are materials relating to her active involvement with animal rights campaigns.
The Mollie Gregory Collection of Oral Histories contains audio interviews and brief transcripts that focus on welfare, family, and women's issues in Nevada from 1970 to 1974. Gregory interviewed Nevada residents including Maya Miller, Ruby Duncan, and Mary Wesley, who described their lives during the anti-poverty and women's rights campaigns in the early 1970s. The collection documents views on welfare; the Equal Rights Amendment; race, discrimination, and civil rights; and political campaigns.