Oral History Project
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Joseph Buckley Wing Fong Pat Goodall Harold Boyer Ty Hilbrecht Jim Jones |
Bert Purdue J.A. Tiberti David Welles Kenneth Miller Donald Aikin |
This interview concerns Ken's professional experiences and his experiences as a Rotarian. This is Patrick Carlton conducting the interview and this is a transcription of tape one, side one.
Mr. Miller would you please for the record give us your full name and the name of the Rotary Club you belong to.
This is Kenneth E. Miller and I am a member of the Rotary Club of Las Vegas.
I wonder if you would begin by describing your birthplace and your early years of your life, how you grew up so to speak.
I was born in Western Kansas, Garden City. I grew up on a farm there. This was during the dust bowl period and so I learned about the troubles that farmers had.
Were you part of a large family; did you have brothers and sisters?
I have one brother who is now deceased and two sisters.
Your dad was in what kind of work?
He owned a farm and was a farmer.
Your mom, was she a professional person herself.
She was a school teacher before she married my father and then with four children there wasn't too much else she could do.
I assume mom is gone by now, she is deceased.
Yes, she is deceased.
You said you lived on a farm near Garden City. I wonder if you'd talk a little bit about your public school experience.
That was interesting by today's standards. The first six years I went to a country school which had about 12-14 students in it and half of them were my brothers and sisters and cousins; and from that point I went on to Sublette for a couple of years and then on to Garden City where I graduated from high school. I was sixteen when I graduated.
Then you went straight on into college?
I took a year of college then and I needed to get money. So I joined the army in 1946 and was sent to Japan for two years; then I came back and, since I had the GI bill, I finished my college with that. I was a student at the University of Kansas and I went the first year when I was 16 years old and then I went to the army and came back at 19 and finished school there when I was 21. I was an ROTC graduate during the Korean war and I was sent to Europe where I was a company commander.
Infantry?
Yes
Talk a little bit about what you did when you were in Japan; what were your official duties?
This was in 1946 when I was sent over there and first I was in an infantry company and then I was transferred to a supply company; that is where I spent my time.
You were talking about your college experiences, did you have any employment? Did you work at all in college?
Yes, my first year I worked for a grocery store to get enough money to help get through college and then my final three years I had a little company that distributed candy to little shops around the university.
I believe you said at one point that you became a certified public accountant. How did that happen?
Well that was something I intended to do when I got my degree in accounting. I took the exam in 1955 and became a CPA.
I assume you then entered the workforce. What was the outfit you worked for in the early years?
The first 14 years I was with Price-Waterhouse in Kansas City, which is headquartered in New York. The next 14 years I was in New York City as the chief financial officer of a multi-national shipping company. That brought me to 28 years and the company was acquired by some people here in Las Vegas. They liquidated it after 14 years and asked me to come out to be the chief financial officer of Valley Bank of Nevada.
Who was the president, head person of Valley Bank when you joined the company?
Perry Thomas. He is the one who asked me to come out.
You were with them quite some time too?
Eleven years.
Was that your last professional assignment?
Yes.
So you would have retired then what year?
I retired ten years ago. [1994]
I wonder if you would talk about some of the projects Valley Bank helped to finance. I understand that they were very influential in this area?
Valley Bank financed many of the Hotel/Casinos on the strip and downtown. They were financially significant and that was largely because of the ability of Perry Thomas to create funds that could be used.
I guess you have met some interesting people over the years, people that are well known as part of the history of Las Vegas.
I have but those in the casino industry that I knew have mostly retired.
Perry Thomas, was he the one who was allied with Mr. Mack to build the Thomas & Mack.
Yes, Perry Thomas and Jerry Mack.
We'd better jump back and talk about your marital status. When did you marry and how did you meet your wife?
I met Betty when I was in college. After I graduated in 1951 I went back for a few months while I was waiting to be called into the Army and I met her. When I came back from Europe in the military I looked her up and we started dating and got married in 1954.
You have children; tell me about your children?
Two children. I have a son that has his own company back in the east, an engineering company. A daughter who has an eleven year old daughter and they live in Bethlehem, PA.
Talk about your hobbies, things that interest you outside of work?
Until I became ill a year and a half ago I liked to play golf. I haven't started back yet but I am getting close to being able to do that. Actually, my hobbies have more to do with service to the community than anything else.
The club roster says you joined the Rotary Club of Las Vegas in 1983. I wondered if you would tell me what your motivation was in joining and how it was you came to be invited to join that club?
My motivation was really quite simple. When I was a senior in high school in Garden City the local Rotary Club had a speech contest; this was in 1945 and the war was still on and I won the speech contest. They were going to send me to the state capital which was 400 miles away to compete on state level but nobody had any gasoline to make that round trip of 800 miles. So I never got to go. I never forgot that opportunity, so when I came here some of the people in the bank were Rotary club members and they asked me to join.
It says you were the club treasurer in 1987-88 and you were vice-president in 1988-89. Please talk a little bit about how it was you joined the movement through the chairs in that club.
I expressed a desire to be more active in the club and there were members of the club who thought I would be good at it; and so they nominated me.
Club history also says that while you were president in 1989-90 donations to the Rotary International Foundation totaled $29,000, a lot of money. You had $27,000 in community service projects; and that the club gave the Community College and UNLV scholarships in the amount of $11,000. I wondered if you would talk about how you raised all that money?
Well we had fundraising events and the participation of the club was very good at that. The contributions of our club members did it.
Do you recall any of the fundraisers that you utilized during that time?
We had parties where we would have the spouses there and we would do dancing and what have you. That is how we did it. We charged a fee to participate.
You had to pay to dance?
Right.
Another one of the projects mentioned in the history, in the area of international projects, has to do with providing an ambulance to the citizens of Ensenada, Mexico for use in that community. How did that project come into being and who carried it forward on behalf of the club?
It came into being because I learned about it as I was in touch with California clubs; and I contacted the people that did that kind of thing and I got one of our members, Ralph Rohay, to put it together and run it. I went with him.
How did you do it? Did you drive it down there?
Yes.
Also during your presidential year it says that you installed playground equipment and shrubs at George Shoong Park and Wayne Bunker Park. How did those projects come into being and who was it that carried the major responsibility for getting those things done?
Irwin Kishner. He was the motivator.
Now those Parks were already in existence?
Yes.
It says the past presidents of the club, this is also during your presidential year, were organized into subsidiary group and that a member of that group was added to the club board of directors. I wonder if you would tell me about the reasoning behind that move and comment on the usefulness of that group to the operations or structure of the club?
It was established in order to get more people involved in the club's activities and in the activity of other clubs in the district and it added to the ability of people to become part of the actions of Rotary Club.
Then you moved on up to district governor in 1995-96 and I believe you were the third Nevadan to hold that office. I wonder if you could talk a little about the plans that you made and the program that you provided direction for during your year as district governor.
Well the plans that I made were simply to create more of an awareness and participation of clubs and therefore I created videos, collected pictures and I got information in from all the clubs or most of the clubs in the district; and when I went to a club I would show this material and talk about it. This created in the minds of people things that our other clubs are doing and were successful in.
Please talk about the important projects that were undertaken in district 5300 during your year as governor and describe some of the challenges that you encountered as well as the successes.
Most of the projects were done by clubs because I was trying to emphasize club level activities; and so it ran the whole gambit of types of things that clubs do. It was not a district level program.
How about membership, were you successful district wide in terms of raising the membership?
Membership was maintained. We had perhaps the district we had maybe 200-300 more people than we now have. There was a real drop off in the late 1990's.
I believe you did some work with the Rotary Foundation during your district gubernatorial year.
That is true. The club meetings that I held were designed so that the club members would become involved and it very carefully emphasized the foundation. As a result contributions to the rotary foundation that year were among the top 15 or 20 in the world.
That is very impressive. Some people have said that from time to time, occasionally tensions arise between the clubs from the two states, California vs the Nevada Clubs. Would you talk about the nature of the relationship between Nevada and California Clubs during your term of offices as district governor?
It was a very good relationship. I did not sense any competitive activity that was involved and I really question whether or not it really exists today. It may exist in the minds of some people.
Talk about the extent to which the Rotary Club of Las Vegas was involved in the Paul Harris Fellows Program.
The Rotary Club of Las Vegas has been a contributor, that is members of the club have contributed, to a substantial degree over years and years so they are very much involved and have programs to emphasize this participation.
That's the one where $1000 gets a person named a Paul Harris Fellow?
Yes
What about the Ambassadorial Fellowship Program? To what extent has the club gotten involved in that?
We have participated in that and have financially supported people who go into that program.
Has the club been involved with the Youth Exchange for high school age kids at all?
Yes it has been but I am not really aware of just how much that is.
What club members have served at the district or national level other than yourself and, of course, Joe Buckley and Don Aikin?
There have been many club members on district committees. I can't name them now.
Well you have been a member of Rotary of Las Vegas for over 20 years and I wonder if you would talk a little bit about the contributions of the Las Vegas Rotary Club to the development of the City of Las Vegas itself?
Members of that Rotary Club have been significant in creating the growth of Las Vegas. For example, there are significant areas that have been developed by the Thomas and Mack Families. The Thomas Family has had members in the club ever since I have been there.
During the 1980's I am wondering what racial or ethnic groups were present in Las Vegas, speaking of Chinese, Hispanic, and African-American to the extent that they were present at that time. How well did the folks of different backgrounds get along with each other?
Well there was a mixture of ethnic backgrounds. The largest of course was Latino/Hispanic. There was a significant African-American population. I realize that they have had some conflicts over the years but I am not aware of anything significant; but I am sure they are there because you can read them in the newspaper.
How has the social and the physical climate in Las Vegas changed in the past several decades? I am thinking about issues like population growth, traffic, and pollution.
The population growth has been significant. When we moved here there were about 500,000 people. Today there is 1,600,000 or something like that. You can tell it in the traffic that is in the city now. You can also see it in all kinds of department stores we now have. We didn't have those in earlier years. It's had an impact on the marketing of goods that people buy; the number of restaurants has grown significantly. It has had a big impact and as a matter of fact we only go to the strip maybe once or twice a year.
I have heard it said that construction as well as gaming are the two largest forms of employment in the city. I wonder if you would talk about how construction has changed the face of Las Vegas.
All you need to do is go over to the window and look out and see all the homes that have been built and drive anywhere around the outlying streets and you see all this new construction. It's had a tremendous effect.
Please talk about the growth and development of Nevada Southern which became UNLV since your arrival in Las Vegas.
My numbers may not be absolutely correct but I think that the University had about 250 students when they came and now its about 25,000 at least.
Have you had any contact with the hotel management program at all in during your time here?
No.
Please talk about your experience with the shows, dining downtown, and other entertainment in Las Vegas. Tell me something about the price structure in place for food and so forth when you arrived back in the 1980's.
The restaurant food was much less expensive that it is today, but that's what's happened in the United States as a whole. It still is very competitive and we enjoy the restaurants tremendously.
What effect do you believe the large corporate outfits like Hilton has had on the climate of the city?
I don't think it's had a real effect on the climate of the city. I think what it has done is enabled the marketing of the activities of Las Vegas. These companies have been more effective in creating an opportunity for additional people to come here.
Some people argue that Las Vegas now feels more like a big city than it did 35 years ago, but others will still say it's a small town in lots of ways and I wonder how you feel about that and what your reasoning is?
It was relatively small when we came here, 500,000 people. That were not a lot of people and today with 1,500,000 people-that is a lot of people and it has had an impact. It's a significant city. We don't have adequate roads and streets to support the population so it gets jammed up pretty badly.
How about the water situation; to what extent do you think that's critical or a problem?
I think the water is critical. I am not sure that it should be a problem because it may be what the administrative people are doing rather than the actual need; because there is a lot of underground water in Nevada that could be utilized-and it's not.
I assume by the time you moved here that they were no longer relying on springs but were using Lake Mead.
Yes, they were using Lake Mead and that kind of thing.
A question about government. To what extent is the presence of various levels of government felt here, that is, city, county, state and federal as you have observed it?
It's rather difficult to define which section of government is doing what because it gets all mixed up, but as long as they keep the taxes down we are not unhappy with it.
I have heard it said that when Mayor Goodman goes out he gives more speeches outside of Las Vegas, that is, in the County, than he does in the City.
I would think so.
How has he done as mayor?
When I was in banking I got to know him pretty well and I think he is a good man for that job.
How does Las Vegas compare to other Southwestern cities like Phoenix, Albuquerque in terms of its similarities and differences?
I am not really too knowledgeable in those areas. I don't know those areas that well.
I know there is some folks in the East at least that view us as kind of a sin city and look a little down their noses at us How do you feel the image of the city has changed in the past 20 years or so if it has?
The image has changed from the point of view of the competitive entertainment and food processing, etc…I think that it also probably doesn't have as much "sin" in it as it did 10-15 years ago.
How about attitudes toward gaming here; how has that attitude changed locally in the past decade?
I really don't know because I do not gamble and I have no real experience in that.
I wonder if you would talk a little bit about your view of the future of the City of Las Vegas. Where are we going to be in the next decade or so?
My feeling on the future is that there are confusing developments at the governmental level that may have a negative impact on the growth level. I think that there is a feeling of resistance to further growth by a lot of the people who live here and that has a political impact.
We are told that increasing numbers of retired people are moving here and, of course , we have the continued influx of young people looking for work, which puts many different kinds of pressures on the system. What is your observation about changes in the school system, Clark County School District and how it has done its business.
I think one of the most amazing things in this city has been the growth of the school system and the ability for that school system to maintain some level of achievement. The difficulty is that there are still an awful lot of high school students who drop out and that has a bad impact ultimately; but the school system, given the growth, has done a pretty good job.
Well we have come to the place where I ask you the question I ask everybody. Despite my best efforts I have probably failed to ask you something that I should have; what did I not ask you that I should ask for the record?
I don't know.
Maybe this is a good place to end the interview. I think this has been a very good interview and I appreciate your spending the time with me.
I hope it's been useful to you.
It has been.
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Oral History Project |
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