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Veteran's Affairs Plus discusses the issues that veterans in Las Vegas deal with on a daily basis. Your host, David L. Washington connects listeners with relevant community resources and information that they need to help veterans or themselves.
Announcer 0:00
This is a KU NV studios original program.
Wesley Knight 0:04
You're listening to special programming sponsored by making moves, life coaching services. The content of this program does not reflect the views or opinions of 91.5 jazz and more the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, or the Board of Regents of the Nevada System of Higher Education. You
Music 0:35
Come on, tell
Music 0:42
me what's going it's
Dave Washington 0:50
a great day Las Vegas. It's a great day in the valley. This is Dave Washington, Veterans Affairs, plus on 91.5 jazz and more. And I got Wes over in the control room, keeping me on track. Good day, good day. All, good day, all. Look. I certainly want to express condolences to the McCurdy family on the loss of Billy, a long time resident of our valley and a local political operative. I know Billy had a sign business and other things that he managed campaigns and was very successful at it. So once again, he is now an ancestor, and I know there'll be several different things going on for him later on this week. So just check your So social media, it's, it's out there in terms of what will be going on on Friday and Saturday. With that, I'd like to also in terms of condolences, condolences to those families of the pilots, and certainly wish greater health for those firefighters where they had the collision just a day or so ago, those airports, a lot of people don't realize going across the runways can be very, very dangerous, and we just wish everyone will in that regard. Next, I'd like to talk about just a couple of quick announcements. And we did talk about birthdays. Last week, golf event. We got the golf event for EDI coming up on April 8 and ninth. We got a skin game on the eighth and scramble on the ninth. It's the Herschel Clady, Chief Hersch lady and chief Spike Jones, fundraiser for our scholarship program for the Carl homes executive development institute. So we're still looking for a golfer. So those golfers out there, you know how to get a hold of me. This is Dave, so we can certainly you. Also we have T signs that are available for folks and Eugene Campbell, new president of the Carl Holmes, executive development institute. Carla Holmes, our executive director and and at Nance home, Nance Holt, I should say they are, along with Burt Washington treasurer, they are putting on a great celebration for our 35th anniversary of the Carl homes executive development institute, all those alumni out there and others who are wishing to come and participate our website, edi.org Carl, homes, edi.org the various activities that will be going on with the organization and celebrating and then, of course, last month, this month is Women's History Month, and I mentioned several women last week, and I want to continue that and just acknowledging the women who have done tremendous work, Virginia Brooks, Brewster, she was a school board trustee, did a lot of work within our community, still leading, and she's in her mid 80s, and thank god she's still in control of her faculties. Helen told her she is an outstanding person, educator in our community, still going strong, and she's one of our I call them super seniors in Swayze in field. She's a former IRS agent, longtime member of our community. In fact, went to school at Valley High School with my wife, Marsha Betsy Fretwell, who did some outstanding work at City Manager and Deputy City Manager, she was my boss with Las Vegas Fire and Rescue. So Betsy, salute you for the work that you continue to do. Beverly bridges, she was working with the City of Las Vegas. She just recently lost her daughter, and we had a celebration for her daughter, and it was well done. Beverly, you did. Did very well for your daughter. Regina Porter Walker, longtime friend, always supporting things that I'm doing. In fact, she and her daughter were participating in my 75th celebration. So thank you, Regina, for. Always being a supporting person in things that old Dave Washington attempts to do to celebrate our community and do things to assist others who are doing great work in our community. Clay T white, she she does a lot of work here at the university. I think she's still here with her program, so just want to salute her as well. Kimberly Bailey Truro with her the work that she does. She also has a radio program, which he has authors on there and talks about a lot of different community events, to include giving a lot of advice for those who are in business. Sister in law, Deborah Scott, she is going through some things right now from a health standpoint and others. So Deborah, we wish you well and keep doing the great work that you and your husband Joseph do in terms of contracting within our community. Rose Washington. Rose is a cousin. She is doing great work in our community. In fact, Rose Washington, Pearson, then another rose. A long time, neighbor rose Washington. She is a rose Washington bunch. Sorry about that, Vic. Vic said, You better mention my name and I don't just give her her maiden name. So we thank rose for the work that they did over at the restaurant that they have for many, many years. Georgie Watkins Grayson, that's my aunt, and she's an ancestor now with She guided me a lot during my life. So just want to say hey and and thank you, particularly her daughters. Do listen to the program. So just want y'all to know that we haven't forgot about your mom. Dr Marsha Robinson, over at the West Las Vegas Art Center, continuing to do great work. Or Dr Robinson, don't think that we've forgotten about you. So thanks so very much. Lois Trotter, that's a long time family friend and Lois went to school with Marsha early in their their career as a student. So with that, just wanted to acknowledge some women who have done great work in our community. At this time, we're going to bring in. Our first guest is Dr Lonnie Wright for some of the many things that he's done in this community. As I mentioned, we would have Dr Lonnie Wright long time Las Vegas. He's going to be our guest. How you doing?
Lonnie Wright 7:24
Doc, I'm doing great, cheap, and I want to add something to that long time friends.
Dave Washington 7:31
Man, oh, yeah, no doubt we ate dirt together. Brother, that's right out in Vegas, heights, Vegas, you talk about go way, way back, man, where people say, oh, man, I've been here a long time. How long you been? How many 15 years? You better talk about 50, 6070, years. Then you could talk about being here a long time. We're pleased to have you, Doc. We're absolutely pleased to have you. So give us some background on you as a longtime resident of Las Vegas, please.
Lonnie Wright 8:00
Well, I was born at Nellis Air Force Base. My father was in the Air Force, and in his main job, really was, was boxing. He was an athlete, and he boxed for the Air Force. Oh, wow. And, and so I was born and raised in Las Vegas from Nellis Air Force Base. Spent a lot of time around the Air Force Base when I was a kid, and then I went on and I didn't live here all my life. I lived over in LA for a short period of time, maybe about eight years. I went to Dorsey High School, Crenshaw High School, and came back to Las Vegas to graduate from Western High School.
Dave Washington 8:46
Okay, so in terms of your your formal, your the next level of your education is that all at UNLV.
Lonnie Wright 8:55
I got all my degrees at UNLV, my baccalaureate, my masters and my doctorate from UNLV. I was very blessed, because I hear about a lot of people saying that they have, you know, all of these loans that they owe. But I was, I was blessed. They got to get my baccalaureate under my basketball, under the Student Scholarship basketball. And then when I started this organization that we're going to talk about UNLV basketball alumni, I got my master's from a program that I started. And then as a tenured professor in the University College system, for over 30 years, I went back and and I got my PhD. And so, you know, being the tenured professor, you can, you know, you don't have to pay as much right to get your PhD. So I was very, very blessed. So what was
Dave Washington 9:53
your What was your baccalaureate? What
Lonnie Wright 9:54
discipline? Oh, Hospitality Management. Hotel Management. And then my my master was in post secondary, secondary ed, and my doctorate was in curriculum.
Dave Washington 10:12
Okay, so you, you, you went from just generally, doing some things, and decided as far as well, not generally, but more specifically, from the hotel industry training to go ahead and almost be a master in terms of training folks in that discipline to work in the industry, whether here in Las Vegas or anywhere in the world, I would imagine, absolutely.
Lonnie Wright 10:39
And that led me, after years, I wrote my own book in Hospitality Management, and that's the book that my students read. And uniquely enough, that book that I wrote was to introduce people, you know, young hospitality trainees into into the hospitality business. I introduced them through the lens of Las Vegas. So my book was all about Las Vegas and that, that sort of thing. Oh, cool.
Dave Washington 11:13
So it is being used for for classes to this day.
Lonnie Wright 11:19
Yes, it is, yeah. It's, yeah, I've been using it for five years. It's in the third edition
Dave Washington 11:25
right now. Wow. Man, that is. Man, congratulations, Doc. I had no, no idea. You may have told me, but you know, as we get old, we start forgetting. But I think that's a that is well said about you to write a book that can be used by students. In fact, I'm an author as well. In my book called The Power of peace, my editor was trying to convince me to write a training manual. I said, No, I want to do more inspirational. So my book is more inspiring. But I love that the fact that you have written a book that will help to train people, because hospitality is something that you know sometimes I trust that you and your wife, Sherry, have had the experience that marsh and I've had that people you said, I want this or I want that, and then he come back and they don't wait a minute. I think a cornerstone, because I was a bus boy in my junior year in high school at Caesar's Palace, I watch waitresses and waiters. A cornerstone of that industry, to me is the ability to listen. Man, when you come back with the wrong stuff, you go like, where did you train it? But anyway,
Lonnie Wright 12:35
that's a part of customer service. But I wanted to go back to my degrees, because now I have my dissertation in my hand, okay, my book, my I got my Bachelor's of Science in hospitality, I mean, Hotel Administration. And then my my master's of education, secondary, post secondary and vocational education. And then my doctorate was in Doctor of Philosophy and curriculum and instruction.
Dave Washington 13:06
Okay, so that prepared you to lead a group that would train people in this industry, for sure,
Lonnie Wright 13:12
domestically and internationally. I you know you you know, as close as we are, you know, sometimes we take our friends, you know, accomplishments, and we don't talk about that between you and I, because you, you, we go back like brothers, you know, right? I was able to open up a hotel school in Singapore as a dean, and I also did a lot of lectures in did a lecture in Beijing and in several colleges about Las Vegas and the evolution of gaming and hotels throughout provinces in South Korea, several, I think, six universities one year and eight universities the next year. But, but this whole thing about, you know, teaching the next generation to be great leaders in the hotel business is not only a domestic but an international thing that I've done
Dave Washington 14:27
over the years that is excellent, and I commend you for that. I can tell you that I could I could tell and Dr Wright, I've never been around you when you were actually performing that task of teaching and training. But I can tell you my son in law, Nathan Armageddon. He was with Caesar entertainment for nine years, and he was a hotel manager. And I can tell you when me and Marsha would go out for new years and we what do they call it? The back of the house. He had he had left planet. They would to go over to Paris. And at the time the MGM and, man, these folks, man, they were like, man, like he was a king coming through. Oh, Nathan, when are you coming back? These are people at Planet Hollywood. Because Nathan, you know, he may walk through with a suit on, and if you see a napkin on the floor. He'd pick it up. He was not and he'd sometimes he'd go and help him to, you know how you put your your your eating utensils in a napkin and roll them all up. He would do that kind of stuff. And, oh, they love this man so much, because he just, even though he was a top guy, he never looked down his nose at anyone. So I can imagine what they think of you, your students that you and you got to be proud man of yourself, in terms of those who have gone on in the industry, to go on and be general managers, etc, etc, in the hospitality industry, absolutely,
Lonnie Wright 15:54
I have students out there right now running mega resorts, and When I was teaching some 40 years ago at UNLV, William Hornbuckle was a student, and when he became president of the largest hotel in the world at that time, he called in old professor Wright to do his first diversity training of 500 supervisors and managers the first time. And then when they bought Steve wins properties, they call me back in to do diversity training as well. So that was a former student that that that became, and now he's he was at my last event that I had, the fireside chat, I bring in industry leaders and people that that have contributed to the growth of the hospitality industry here in Las Vegas, and I catalog them and interview them, tape them for future references with my students, so I take those tapes along with my book, and it's a one two punch of learning the hospitality business through the lens of Las Outstanding, outstanding.
Dave Washington 17:11
Well, that's a perfect segue into you have a guest this week that you're bringing in to do a fireside chat with us, inform our listening audience,
Lonnie Wright 17:20
about her? Well, the great president of the aces, Nikki Vargas, she is just a phenomenon in herself. She was a great athlete, and she coasted some great schools, LSU and and she went on and had some coaching jobs, and now she's in charge of our aces, and I'm telling you, she is doing a heck of a job, and she couldn't be to follow up. You know, William Hornbuckle with Nikki Vargas is right on par with what I want to expose my students to great leaders,
Dave Washington 18:07
excellent, excellent. And she, she has quite a extensive background, and now she's leading what is definitely going to be one of those dynasty type teams.
Lonnie Wright 18:18
Well, you know, after you win about three championships, you can start using that word dinosaur. So see, you know one of the questions, well, I won't, I won't spoil it, but, but there, there will be something alluded to, how do you keep those standards high to continue to have a winning culture in a you know, presenting a great product in our business, a great product and service, and their business is still a great product. And you know, you and I have been here long enough, Dave, to see Las Vegas evolve from the gambling capital of the world and then became the gaming capital. Because when it started proliferating to throughout the United States, especially down in the Bible Belt, we couldn't say we were bringing in the gambling industry. Gaming was a little more palatable, right? Exactly. So now and then, you and I, when we were growing up, and they open up circus, circus, and now kids had something to do, and this industry started really literally taking money from the piggy banks to the pension plan. We expanded our market.
Dave Washington 19:37
That's right. Yeah, we're certainly entertainment capital world fits certainly what we do in this industry here. And I can tell you that I'm proud of you, Dr Wright, for what you've done. And I can tell you not to, just to pat myself on the back, but two of four guys from my staff became fire chiefs, two white, two black, and off of off of three. Those individuals from their staff became other fire chiefs. So leadership is important, and I don't think we can ever sit on our laurels, because I'm always studying this whole dynamic. Leadership is so important, and you got to have integrity. You got to be a person of your word. You can't you know if you start lying and doing things that are you know that are unethical, people are going to pick it up real quick, and you will get no respect some some will give you just enough to get along. But like I said, as I talked about, my son in law, Nathan, Armageddon, you could tell that these people absolutely loved him and his leadership, and they would, you could tell they would do about anything for him, because he was a straight up guy. And again, integrity, honesty, all those things are so important if you're going to be a leader, no doubt well in
Lonnie Wright 20:53
this town, as you will know, chief in this town, you know, if you there maybe about a handful of families that run 75% of the hotels and casinos, the potatoes, the boards, the guns, the winds. If you get fired and they say no higher, you might as well move out of town. Or yeah, this is a small your reputation, like your son in law is very, very important. Absolutely, very important, absolutely.
Dave Washington 21:25
And I can tell you, you know, it is so important to just handle business when you're in a role and never look down your nose at a person. Because, and I tell people all the time, when I speak to maids and housekeeping port is they look at me like, are you really speaking? Yeah, if I, if I got to tell you, I'll tell you that I've done that job before, not that it really matters. It's just that you're providing a service that's going to make me feel good as a, you know, a customer with this particular hotel, and that those things are important. So hospitality industry and the training that you and your team provides, I think it's good for us as citizens and taxpayers. Because one thing for sure, even though there's been some criticism lately lately about the prices of things around our city, that is really causing some turbulence out there, in the in the media atmosphere, if you will, because they say, Oh, they're getting too high for things. And we but service. And I'm gonna give you an example. We were down last week to see the clippers, because my grandson, that's his favorite team, and the spear in which my daughter Amber as a housewife and Nathan, who you've met Nathan and know Nathan. They have stayed at the Ritz Carlton several times. And we were at, we were at Hampton Inn out near the airport, and a mirror our youngest grand, one of our youngest granddaughter, said, Why are we here? She said we should be at the Ritz Carlton. Are you kidding? Right? Those rules are way up there. But the service, I think she was looking at service as well.
Lonnie Wright 23:13
There's a difference between five star and three star and four star. Very true products and service and amenities and all those things that come along with it.
Dave Washington 23:24
Absolutely no, no, it was. It was very nice, but it's just the idea of this, this young, 10 year old, really saw the difference. And, you know, it's interesting how she had her eyes on things. But I can tell you this, that, again, this kind of work that you do is so so so well needed for our community. Now, back to your speaker once again, even though this is after the fact, I think it's important for folks to know who she is, and a little bit more about her to include. How can people view your past fireside chats?
Lonnie Wright 24:08
You can go to, well, I have a lecture series. Also. You can go to YouTube and type in, let Las Vegas be your classroom, and that's where I catalog a lot of movers and shakers, including Elaine Wynn and Oh, several others, Bill Paulus. Guys that have led the business have come out and spoken to my classes. So you can go to YouTube and type in, let Las Vegas be your classroom. And I named that lecture series that because I was letting the people of Las Vegas teach my class. So let Las Vegas be the classroom, and then I have a another program on you. Two it's, it's called Las Vegas hospitality evolution. Okay, those are more interviews about a lot of movers and shakers, some of the first black cocktail waitress I do the whole gamut. And if you don't know Las Vegas, and you want to know Las Vegas from an academic point of view, from from statistical data and that sort of thing, you may want to chime in on those two programs. Those programs evolved into a fireside chat. So now, instead of having people come in and lecture, we just sit around and kick it and talk about the business right now and then let my students ask
Dave Washington 25:50
questions afterwards. That is great. Once again, this is Veterans Affairs, plus on 91.5 jazz and more. We have the great Dr Lonnie Wright, UNLV graduate, running various programs that just doing the great work that we need to do for our community. So the young lady is there, is there any means of checking her out? Your speaker that you've had in this week?
Lonnie Wright 26:16
They will, first of all, when I film every one of these, and after I film it, I'll put it on YouTube so people can watch Bill Hornbuckle. They can watch Nikki Vargas and all of my speakers, Lieutenant Governor Hunt. I spoke with hunt Bono and also her husband, who was heir apparent to Frank Sinatra, I have an interview with him on Lost Las Vegas hospitality evolution. So it's it's programs that that talk about those individuals, the different hotels, and the culture, the vintage culture that we came from, and showing how, in my book, I show how Las Vegas changed when we became a corporate mentality, and that's when Howard Hughes bought up a lot of the hotels. It's interesting how we've changed, but I think we're going to get back on track where, where people are still going to love Las Vegas. We'll try to push the envelope. When it doesn't work then, hey, let's start letting the people park for free. We don't want to miss out on our big market. Southern California is our biggest market, so we don't want to miss them because they have some great Native American hotels and casinos to go to right there in their neighborhood. So we got to keep giving them, you know, the best of the hospitality industry right here in Las Vegas, absolutely.
Dave Washington 27:55
Well, that's a that's a great closing doc, once again, Las Vegas. This is Veterans Affairs, plus on 91.5 jazz Moore had the great Dr, Lonnie Wright a long time Las Vegas, in fact, born right out here at Nellis Air Force Base. Doc, we appreciate you, man and I, I look forward to and this will be after the fact. I trust that when I attend this program, when I have had attended this program that he's putting together for this past Wednesday, I will enjoy this young lady, the president of the aces of Las Vegas basketball, women's basketball.
Lonnie Wright 28:29
Chief, will you do me a favor? Yes, sir, always start off between you my brother, as long time brothers, I got you, Dave, literally, we literally ate dirt together.
Dave Washington 28:42
That's right, thank you, Doc. We appreciate you, sir, and I'll be in touch once again Veterans Affairs. All right, once again, Veterans Affairs, plus on 91.5 jazz and more. Signing off. You.
Music 29:22
You all the smoke in the air, till the hate when they stare, all the pain that we bear.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai