Search the Special Collections and Archives Portal
Search Results
So Ping "Suzy" Chan oral history interview
Oral history interview with So Ping "Suzy" Chan conducted by Cecilia Winchell, Jerwin Tiu, and Stefani Evans on May 20, 2022 for the Reflections: the Las Vegas Asian American and Pacific Islander Oral History Project. Wai-Mei Borgel served as an interpreter. In this interview, Chan describes her early life in Toisan, China, where her father owned a jewelry store but soon joined her grandfather in the United States. During the Second Sino-Japanese War, Chan recalls one of her brothers dying, and after the war their family left for Hong Kong, where Chan would grow up and finish her education. In 1963, Chan immigrated first to San Francisco, California, before moving down to Los Angeles, California, and working in a kitchen at a restaurant named Food to Go. After working various jobs in Los Angeles, Chan and her family eventually relocated to Las Vegas, Nevada, where she would continue to work various culinary jobs and as a Pai Gow dealer. Chan discusses venturing into real estate and tells stories throughout the interview that reflect the hard-earned but fun-spirited life she has led.
Archival Collection
Traci Roberts oral history interview
Oral history interview with Traci Roberts conducted by Claytee D. White on November 14, 2005 for the Boyer Early Las Vegas Oral History Project. Roberts opens her interview by discussing her family's history in Las Vegas, Nevada starting in 1969. Roberts then explains running her franchise business, Dream Dinners, a family meal preparation company. She discusses how the business works, their customers, and the benefits of using the service. She then talks about her childhood in Las Vegas, growing up on the Westside, and how in the 1970s Las Vegas was still underdeveloped. Roberts then describes teenage life in Las Vegas during the 1980s, her education at the University of Las Vegas, Nevada (UNLV), her own family, and her two other companies. Roberts then explains why she became a vegetarian, how she defends Las Vegas to outsiders, and her friendships with other born and raised Las Vegas residents. She also discusses her time at UNLV in depth and her advice for other entrepreneurs.
Lastly, Roberts details how family life can thrive in Las Vegas and her thoughts on how to open a business.
Archival Collection
Kevin M. Kelly oral history interviews
Oral history interviews with Kevin M. Kelly conducted by Dennis McBride on September 08 and 22; and November 10, 2000 for the Las Vegas Gay Archives Oral History Project. In the interviews, Kelly talks about his family and early life in Boston, Massachusetts with a focus on his Catholic upbringing. He recalls his law education, serving in the United States Army during the Vietnam War for eleven years, and discovering his sexuality in 1966 while working in the Boston City Hospital. Kelly then describes being discharged from the military due to allegations of being gay, and his family's reaction. He then recalls moving to Las Vegas, Nevada in 1978, where he was involved in a robbery and shooting incident with a male sex worker in 1982. Kelly goes on to recall the trial that proceed the incident and how it publicly outed him. He details how he was charged with felony sodomy and ultimately lost his job as a result of the trial. Finally, he talks about serving on a task force to investigate bias in Nevada's court system in 1992 and being honored in 1994 by the Gay and Lesbian Community Center of Southern Nevada for his work.
Archival Collection
Gregory T. H. Lee oral history interview
Oral history interview with Gregory T. H. Lee conducted by Stefani Evans, Ayrton Yamaguchi, Cecilia Winchell, and Kristel Marie Peralta on December 1, 2020 for Reflections: The Las Vegas Asian American and Pacific Islander Oral History Project.
Gregory discusses his birth in Honolulu, Hawai'i, his upbringing in San Francisco, California, his education from Harvard University, and his moving to Las Vegas in 1988 with his family. He shares how his parents, Doris Shoong Lee and Ted Lee, purchased a casino on East Sahara Avenue and renamed it the Eureka before Gregory left Las Vegas to earn his Juris Doctorate degree from USC Gould School of Law. He talks about his employment history related to law and the joint venture with his parents to open Eureka's sister property in Mesquite, Nevada. Gregory also discusses his Chinese and Japanese heritage, the Hawaiian culture, and his current affairs as well as his take on current events and discrimination in the United States, with particular regard to Black Lives Matter and COVID-19.
Subjects discussed include: Kyushu, Japan and "China virus."
Archival Collection
Luceanne "Lucy" Taufa oral history interview: transcript
Oral history interview with Luceanne "Lucy" Taufa conducted by Jerwin Tiu, Cecilia Winchell, and Stefani Evans on December 16, 2022 for Reflections: the Las Vegas Asian American and Pacific Islander Oral History Project. In this interview, Taufa describes growing up on the Tongan island of Vava'u in a large family and later immigrating to the United States. She recalls her father first immigrating to Hawaii, and after obtaining a green card, her and her siblings following shortly after. While Kaufa's older siblings continued to pursue higher education and her younger siblings were too young to work, she took on a bulk of the responsibility to provide income and navigate life in Hawaii for her family. Eventually, Lucy moved to Dallas, Texas, met her husband, and moved to Las Vegas, Nevada for her husband's job. Later in the interview, she discusses joining the Culinary Union after experiencing racial discrimination at her workplace and her pride in her identity as a Tongan woman.
Text
Emily Ku oral history interview
Oral history interview with Emily Ku conducted by Jerwin Tiu, Cecilia Winchell, and Stefani Evans on December 16, 2022 for Reflections: the Las Vegas Asian American and Pacific Islander Oral History Project. In this interview, Ku decribes growing up in a Mandarin-speaking household and celebrating traditional Chinese holidays. Ku recalls her education at the University of California, Berkeley, where she studied political economy of industrial societies and became involved with the United States Department of Commerce during an internship. She recounts moving around several times before settling down in Las Vegas, Nevada, doing remote work as a market analyst before ending up working on the Commission for Minority Affairs. She talks about her experiences there, as well as her current position with the City of Las Vegas as a management analyst. Ku also talks about some of her community involvement, thoughts on personal identity, her favorite foods, and what she hopes to see from the AAPI community in the coming years.
Archival Collection
Meeting minutes for Consolidated Student Senate University of Nevada, Las Vegas, March 11, 1996
Text
Meeting minutes for Consolidated Student Senate University of Nevada, Las Vegas, January 27, 1997
Text
"The Reintegration of Las Vegas": paper by Roosevelt Fitzgerald
From the Roosevelt Fitzgerald Professional Papers (MS-01082) -- Unpublished manuscripts file. Presented at the Western Social Science Association, 31st Annual Conference, Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Text
Carlton, Patrick
Dr. Patrick W. Carlton has been a professor of Educational Leadership since 2000 at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV). Before coming to UNLV Dr. Carlton worked at Virginia Tech, the University of the Pacific, New York University, and at the U.S. Office of Education. Dr. Carlton earned his Masters in Education and Masters in History from Shippensburg University in Pennsylvania and he earned his Ph.D. in Educational Administration from the University of North Carolina. Dr.
Person