Gans, Jim

E. James (Jim) Gans was raised in Seattle, Washington and Yakima, Washington before he moved to Las Vegas, Nevada in 1950. Gans started in school at Bonanza Elementary, then to a new Hyde Park Junior High where he was part of the first class and on to Rancho High School where he graduated. His first jobs were mowing lawns, a paper route, and working at a dog boarding kennel for 25-cents an hour.

After graduating from high school, he attended Nevada Southern University (NSU) on and off because he also had to work; it took him six years to graduate. During this time, he became a member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Union and helped build the Science and Technology Building and the Dickinson Library on campus. He then went to work for the Environmental Agency, also on campus. After that, he worked for the Titanium Metal Corporation in Henderson, Nevada.

Always interested in flying, Gans went to Reno, Nevada and attended the Aviation academy, got his license and stayed for a while as an instructor. He and his wife, who he met at NSU, came back to Las Vegas, Nevada where he worked for Central Telephone Company and then Southwest Gas Company. Gan’s career path took a turn when he was hired by the Las Vegas Valley Water district and then transferred to the Clark County Sanitation District. He headed up an environmental planning department that culminated in a new, advanced waste water treatment plan and management system. In 1982, Gans went to the University of Nevada Las Vegas and got a master’s in public administration.

He spent 25 years with the Sanitation Department, 20 of those years as the General Manager. In 1999, Gans’s good friend Manny Cortez convinced him he needed a change and offered him a job at the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. He took the job and worked there until he retired. Gans spent many hours in various volunteer endeavors. One is PAYBAC (Professionals and Youth Building a Commitment) where he goes to various middle schools and talks to the students about the importance of education.