An Interview with Jim Gans
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AN INTERVIEW WITH JIM GANS An Oral History Conducted by Claytee D. White The Boyer Early Las Vegas Oral History Project Oral History Research Center at UNLV University Libraries University of Nevada Las Vegas i ©The Boyer Early Las Vegas Oral History Project University of Nevada Las Vegas, 2012 Produced by: The Oral History Research Center at UNLV – University Libraries Director: Claytee D. White Editors: Barbara Tabach, Melissa Robinson, Maggie Lopes, Joyce Moore Transcriber: Kristin Hicks Interviewers and Project Assistants: Barbara Tabach and Claytee D. White ii The recorded interview and transcript have been made possible through the generosity of Dr. Harold Boyer. The Oral History Research Center enables students and staff to work together with community members to generate this selection of first-person narratives. The participants in this project thank the university for the support given that allowed an idea the opportunity to flourish. The transcript received minimal editing that includes the elimination of fragments, false starts, and repetitions in order to enhance the reader’s understanding of the material. All measures have been taken to preserve the style and language of the narrator. In several cases photographic sources accompany the individual interviews. The following interview is part of a series of interviews conducted under the auspices of the Boyer Early Las Vegas Oral History Project. Claytee D. White, Project Director Director, Oral History Research Center University Libraries University Nevada, Las Vegas iii PREFACE The Gans family moved to Las Vegas in 1950 to help alleviate Jim’s mother’s sinus condition and to provide better opportunities for his father who was in the refrigeration and air conditioning field. Jim 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. Jim was always a hard worker. His first jobs were mowing lawns, a paper route, and working at a dog boarding kennel for 25-cents an hour. He learned early on that hard work and saving money would always pay off. His interests were varied including becoming a certified instructor for the Red Cross and serving on their Safety Committee. He led the Sierra Club as their Outing Chairman and spent a lot of time hiking. After graduation from high school he attended Nevada Southern University 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 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, NV. Always interested in flying, he went to Reno and attended the Aviation academy, got his license and stayed on for a while as an instructor. He and his wife, who he met at NSU, came back to Las Vegas where he worked for Central Telephone Co. and then Southwest Gas Company. His career path took a positive 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, Jim went back to UNLV and got a MA in public administration. He spent 25 years with the Sanitation Department, 20 of those years as the General Manager. In 1999, Jim’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. Jim spends 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. For Jim Gans, retired is a relative term. iv Preface The Gans family moved to Las Vegas in 1950 to help alleviate his mother’s sinus condition and also better opportunities for his father who was in the refrigeration and air conditioning field. Jim started in school at Bonanza Elementary, then to a new Hyde Park Junior High where he was part of the first class and on the Rancho High School. Jim was always a hard worker. His first jobs were mowing lawns, a paper route, and working at a dog boarding kennel for .25 an hour. He learned early on that hard work and saving money would always pay off. His interests were varied including becoming a certified instructor for the Red Cross and serving on their Safety Committee. He led the Sierra Club as their Outing Chairman and spent a lot of time hiking. After graduation from high school he attended Nevada Southern University 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 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, NV. Always interested in flying, he went to Reno and attended the Aviation academy, got his license and stayed on for a while as an instructor. He and his wife, who he met at NSU, came back to Las Vegas where he worked for Central Telephone Co. and then Southwest Gas Company. His career path took a positive 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, Jim went back to UNLV and got a MA in public administration. He spent 25 years with the Sanitation Department, 20 of those years as the General Manager. In 1999, Jim’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. Jim spends 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. For Jim Gans, retired is a relative term. v This is Claytee White and I'm with Jim Gans, James Gans. It is January 30th, 2013. How are you this afternoon? I'm great. Good. Mr. Gans, could you spell your last name, please? Yes. G-A-N-S. And your first name I see here it is E. James Gans. Yes. My dad's name is Eugene. They named me Eugene also and it became confusing when we were in Las Vegas, so I went by James. Good, good. So do you ever find yourself E. James? Always. That's all I sign; I always put the “E” in there. Good, wonderful. I'd like to start by talking about your early life, where you grew up, and tell me a little about your family. I was born in Seattle. My dad was working at Boeing at the time. I don't remember anything of Seattle because I think we moved out of Seattle in '45; we were only there about a year and then we moved to Yakima, Washington. I do remember a little bit about that. I was there from age one through five or six. So I started my school education in Yakima. I know I went kindergarten there and I think I went to first grade there. Why did your parents move there? To Yakima? That's where they met when they were teenagers. And when the war came my dad wanted to go in the Air Force, but he was working at Boeing. He started working at Boeing before the War and then he wasn't allowed to go to the Air Force because he was working on the B-29. Boeing felt it was more important for him to be working there on the aircraft than it was for him to be out there in the war. All his brothers, his four brothers all went, but he did not get to go, and he really wanted to. 1 Wow. What was his job at Boeing? He was doing sheet metal fabrication. He put the sheet metal on the aircraft. You had to cut it and fit it and all that. I was kind of surprised because to me that sounded like a very technical job. And he said, “Well, I guess not because I wasn't very technical”. But he had a knack of looking at something and being able to shape and cut that sheet metal the way it was supposed to go on the airplane. Of course, they had some plans, also. He told me it was a lot of just you've got to eyeball it and then look at the plans and then you cut and put it in. So any sisters and brothers? I have a sister. She's two years younger than I am. So why did the family decide to move to Las Vegas? My mom had a bad sinus condition and they couldn't do anything about it. Yakima with the cold winters, the snow and stuff, it was too cold and too moist, and the doctor said you really should go to a hot, dry climate.