Biography
I was born January 5, 1956 in Las Vegas, Nevada at Southern Nevada Memorial Hospital—renamed University Medical Center.
My parents are natives of New Orleans, Louisiana, and have resided in Las Vegas since 1952; my father served two years in the United States Air Force, stationed at Nellis Air Force base.
Childhood residence, until age 12, was in the historic neighborhood of Berkley Square, built in West Las Vegas in 1954.
I attended Kit Carson Elementary school until the fifth grade and St. Christopher’s Parochial school from sixth to eighth grade; graduating from Bishop Gorman High School in 1973, where I had an enthusiastic interest in history, and participated in school sports.
After obtaining my B.S. from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, I entered the University Of Pittsburgh School Of Medicine, class of 1981, which is celebrating its 25th reunion in May 2006. I completed a residency in Family Practice, at SUNY Buffalo, Erie County Medical Center in Buffalo, New York. From Buffalo, New York, I returned to Las Vegas in 1992.
My three sisters and a daughter, all graduated from Bishop Gorman High School. A niece will be entering Bishop Gorman in September of 2006. The sisters are graduates of UNLV, St. Mary’s College, Moraga, CA, and Chatham College, Pittsburgh, PA. My daughter currently attends the Art Institute of Las Vegas, in the fashion design curriculum.
As you can imagine, Las Vegas was a small town when I was growing up, and when we were not in school we spent time running around in the desert, attending the summer reading program at the old Las Vegas Library, downtown, and the summer recreational programs at the old YMCA downtown—we could walk to, and we did, to these destinations from our house. The first theatre movie I ever saw was Viva Las Vegas, at the Fremont St. theatre.
Our parents had a strong sense of civic duty; my father is a Baptist minister, retired businessman, and currently a Hope chaplain at University Medical Center. He briefly served as an appointed Clark County Commissioner. My mother retired, after twenty four years, from the State of Nevada Employment Security Department, and prior to her years with the State of Nevada, she was a licensed practical nurse at Southern Nevada Memorial Hospital. My mom attended Dillard University, New Orleans, Louisiana.
Although I am a physician by profession, I always had an interest in local, national and international affairs, particularly after my sojourn to Nigeria in my senior year of medical school, to participate in an elective at a missionary hospital, in Jos, Plateau State, Nigeria; it gave me the opportunity to develop a more cosmopolitan view of relationships of people, and a greater appreciation for this country of ours—the United States of America.
It is at this time, as I gradually withdraw from the clinical practice of medicine, that I answer the call to public service. Our community, state and nation need leadership.
Lucky, my best friend is an eight year old American Staffordshire terrier; he looks like, and is the same breed as the dog in the Little Rascals television series. In our spare time we like to travel and spend as much time as possible in the great outdoors.
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