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From the Roosevelt Fitzgerald Professional Papers (MS-01082) -- Personal and professional papers file. (Transcripts less than 75 years old are restricted.)

On March 11, 1978, Ann K. Clark interviewed her step grandfather, tire repairman Walter Dane, (born August 10th, 1914 in West Barnett, Vermont) in her, the interviewer’s, home in North Las Vegas. Also present during the interview is the interviewer’s mother, Marie Dane. Walter relocated to Indian Springs in 1930 before settling in Las Vegas in 1943. In 1968 he moved to Utah, where he resided at the time of this interview. Well-traveled, Walter discusses his many moves over the years. Ultimately, this interview covers the growth and development of the Las Vegas and Indian Springs areas.

Not many sixteen-year-olds assume the roles of father and mother to three younger siblings (one an infant), graduate from high school on time, and earn a full-ride scholarship (plus a loan) to a prestigious university. One such sixteen-year-old was Washington, D.C., native DeRuyter O. Butler, Executive Vice President of Architecture, Butler/Ashworth Architects, Ltd., LLC, and formerly Executive Vice President, Architecture, of Wynn Design & Development, LLC, and Director of Architecture, Atlandia Design & Furnishings, Inc. Determined to do right on behalf of his siblings and himself, Butler recruited his grandmother and enrolled in Catholic University, earning his B.S. in Architecture in 1977 while working overtime at the U.S. Post Office, buying a house in Maryland, and supporting his family. His first professional job in Philadelphia required him to rethink his living arrangements. Partnering with his sister, who assumed childcare duties during the week in Maryland, Butler lived in New Jersey during the week and commuted to Maryland on the weekends. After four years in that position and a short stint of being unemployed, in 1982 he became a draftsperson for Steve Wynn's Atlandia Design in Atlantic City. After he had worked with architects Joel Bergman and Paul Steelman in Atlantic City for four years, Wynn moved Atlandia Design to Las Vegas. Butler followed in 1986, bringing with him his grandmother and his youngest brother. In this interview, Butler discusses his unusual career path; the challenges of responding to and anticipating entertainment and recreation market trends; Wynn's insistence on always striving for "better"; and the importance of concealing service infrastructure in order to create the ultimate guest experience. He emphasizes Wynn's leadership in the gaming industry and with Clark County and the City of Las Vegas. He speaks to lessons learned from designing The Mirage, Bellagio, the Wynn, Wynn Palace, and Encore. Finally, he describes real-world limitations to building such as drought and historic water rights; traffic patterns, ride-hailing companies, and parking restrictions, and flight patterns and building heights.

Craig Palacios was born on November 1, 1971 and grew up in the Paradise Palms neighborhood in Las Vegas, Nevada. His family lived close to him and he remembers playing with his relatives up and down the Maryland Parkway Corridor. His first job was in construction where he poured and finished concrete. His talents for design became apparent and he began a new job as a swimming pool designer. Craig’s first company was a concrete company, but he later had to close its doors. After that, Craig decided to attend college and graduated with degrees in Architecture and Art History from UNLV in 2005. He worked for YWS Architecture for a few years before opening his own studio in 2011. Since then, BunnyFish Studio has worked on the Downtown Project and the Maryland Parkway Project.

In twenty-first-century, urban America, Randall "Randy" Walker is one of the few fathers who can say he raised his children in the same house in which he grew up. Walker did not inherit the house at 443 Republic Street, in Henderson. Instead, Walker bought the house from his parents after he graduated from Brigham Young University in Utah, worked with Exxon Oil Company in Houston, returned to Southern Nevada to work in his first government job as a budget analyst for Clark County, and sold the house he previously owned. He did not have to move his wife and children far-their previous home was at 442 Republic Street, directly across from his parents. In this oral history, Walker shares why his family came to Henderson in 1952, describes growing up in the small town of his youth, and tells what it was like to have his father as his high school Spanish teacher. He focuses on his career in government and how he applied his accountant mindset to the various positions he held with Clark County, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, the City of Las Vegas, and McCarran Airport. Along the way he shares his experiences with large governmental building projects such as the first 911 Call Center, the Downtown Transportation Center, the Regional Justice Center, and at McCarran Airport, the D v Gates, Terminal 3, and the airport tunnel and connector roads. He explains how his work with these various projects brought him into interaction with such diverse fields as architecture, accounting, construction, design, infrastructure, public art, public safety and local, state, and national politics. Throughout, Walker displays the collegial and common-sense approach to government, leadership, and problem solving that grounds the decisions he makes and explains why Richard Bunker wanted him at Clark County, why Clark County leaders recruited him to be county manager (and why that did not happen), and why McCarran Airport was able to accommodate without interruption Southern Nevada's record-breaking growth in residential and tourist traffic, and why, even in his absence, McCarran was the first major airport allowed to reopen following the 2001 September Eleventh terror attacks.

Session 1: Interviewed by Marcela Rodriguez-Campo. Barbara Tabach also participates in the questioning. Session 2: Interviewed by Rodrigo Vazquez. Monserrath Hernandez also participates in the questioning. Patricia Vazquez was born and raised in Las Vegas, NV and shares her experiences growing up in the Valley as a Queer Latina. At a young age, she remembers traveling back and forth between Mexico and the U.S. to visit family. When she started school she shares how her home language, Spanish, became her family's "secret language" as she began to learn English. During elementary school Patricia was tracked into the special education program, and remove from the mainstream classroom. She would find her love for learning in books and libraries as she taught herself how to read in English. Despite being tracked into less advanced courses, Patricia would end up taking AP/ Honors courses in high school after forging her favorite teachers signature, which changed her educational trajectory. After coming out to her family, Patricia went nearly a decade distanced from her mother and continued her college education at Arizona State University. There, she would complete a bachelors in painting and a masters in comparative literature. Her work with the Chicano Studies program at ASU helped her develop her Chicana identity and begin her involvement in social activism. In Las Vegas, she worked to fight for marriage equality and LGBTQ rights with the American Civil Liberties Union , and later with the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada. She also conducted several lectures for the Latino Youth Leadership Conference on sexuality, gender, and homophobia for over a decade. She has served as an English Professor at the College of Southern Nevada for the last 20 years and is an avid hiker, traveler, and painter.

Leonard Raizin was born in Windsor, Ontario, Canada in 1930. His father was a cattle dealer. At an early age Raizin knew he wanted to be a doctor and after attending medical school he married his wife Carol Raizin born in Toronto, Canada. Leonard Raizin attended the University of Toronto for medical school in 1948. He met his wife Carol on a blind date. He started his internship at Sinai Hospital of Detroit in 1954. After a trip to Arizona and a feel of the desert weather the Raizins' with their four young daughters moved to Las Vegas, NV in 1961. When arriving in Las Vegas Dr. Raizin practiced at Southern Nevada Memorial Hospital (currently University Medical Center) and also at Sunrise as an anesthesiologist. There was a time while practicing in Las Vegas Dr. Raizin was the only anesthesiologist in the area, and experienced for the first 6 months of life in Las Vegas an extremely immersed schedule that never allowed him an entire night at home. Carol Raizin graduated as one of the first students at UNLV with a degree in Psychology in 1973. Carol eventually worked alongside her husband in their office handling bookkeeping for eight anesthesiologists. Dr. Leonard Raizin and Carol Raizin after a very successful life in Las Vegas are now retired. They still have a home in the Las Vegas area, however they spend their winters skiing in Park City, Utah and their summers fishing in Idaho.