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Gragson, Oran K. (Oran Kenneth), 1911-2002
Politician Oran Kenneth Gragson was the longest serving mayor of Las Vegas, Nevada, a position he held from 1959 to 1975. He was born February 14, 1911, near Tucamari, New Mexico. In 1919, his family moved to Arkansas, then later to Texas. Gragson came to the Las Vegas area in 1932, and worked at the Hoover Dam for a short time before finding employment in highway construction. He managed the Boulder Inn Casino and Dance Hall for a brief time, and later opened the North Main Furniture Store, followed by the Charleston Appliance Center.
Person
Nartker, Thomas A.
Thomas Nartker was born and raised in Dayton, Ohio. He attended grade school and high school there, and then attended the University of Dayton. He majored in chemical engineering. By the time Nartker was a sophomore in college, He had already been accepted for graduate study at the University of Tennessee.
Person
Paz, Jacob, Dr.
Dr. Jacob Paz was born November 14, 1938 and grew up in an agricultural environment in Israel where he attended Kadoorie High School. After his graduation, Paz joined the Israeli army. He attended technical school for two years and started working for the Israel Atomic Energy commission in Dimona, Israel, making atomic bombs. Paz was accepted into University of California Davis, and moved to the United States to study veterinary medicine.
Person
Hensley, Ernest W., 1940-
Ernie Hensley III was born March 14, 1940 to parents Ernest W. Hensley Jr. and Gladys Barbara Hensley. He was raised in Washington, D.C. At the age of seven, he found a saxophone in his grandmother’s attic and embarked on his musical journey. He took lessons at the Modern School of Music in D.C., acquiring proficiency with the clarinet and the flute through long hours of practice. Hensley attended a historically black school, Armstrong High School, until he was transferred to McKinley High School in 1954, following the Brown v. Board of Education ruling.
Person
Frey, James H. (1941 June 29-)
James Frey was born in Eureka, South Dakota, in 1941. His father worked in creamery and his mother was a registered nurse. When Frey was nine, the family, including his twin sister, relocated in Sioux Falls where his dad was plant manager for a dairy. He joined the YMCA in the fourth grade and ended up working for them until around the age of 22. He attended Augustana College in Sioux Falls, graduating with a major in sociology and a minor in history. After graduation, he worked for three years at the YMCA in Sioux Falls as program director.
Person
Fry, Joseph A., 1947-
Dr. Joseph Fry was born West Virginia on May 21, 1947. He was the only child of an insurance salesman and a public school teacher. His parents met in Ronceverte, West Virginia, and lived for a while in his grandmother's boarding house. He had an idyllic childhood in this small town of 2500 people. After graduation, he was interested in playing college basketball and ended up at Davis and Elkins College in east central West Virginia.
Person
Fagel, Harry
From the transcript: "In the signature line of Harry Fagel’s emails is a reads: Be the light in dark spaces. This illumines the person that Harry is both as a police officer and a poet in Las Vegas. Harry is native Las Vegan, who has served the community with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department for nearly 30 years. He currently is a police lieutenant serving in Laughlin, Nevada. In addition, Fagel is a respected poet, writing both for the public and on commission. He performs in the local poetry scene.
Person
George, Lloyd D., 1930-
Judge Lloyd D. George was born on February 22, 1930, in Montpelier, Idaho. He attended grade school and high school in Las Vegas, Nevada, and earned his bachelor’s degree from Brigham Young University in 1955. Later that same year, he entered the United States Air Force and worked as a fighter pilot in the Strategic Air Command. In 1958, he concluded his military service as a captain and in 1961, earned his Juris Doctor degree from the University of California at Berkeley.
Person
Lin, Vida Chan, 1955-
Vida Chan Lin was born in San Francisco as the middle of five children--all given Spanish names because the family migrated to the U.S. via Chile. Vida began working as a young child in her immigrant parents' Chinese restaurant, but soon the family opened the first Yet Wah, and the Chan family restaurants eventually numbered eleven in the San Francisco area. Vida moved to Las Vegas in 1993 to help her sister and brother-in-law with legal issues.
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