Las Vegas Sun

March 19, 2024

OPINION:

Bill Boyd’s passion for hometown burns bright as ever

60th anniversary fremont hotel

Bill Hughes

Bill Boyd, executive chairman for Boyd Gaming, is shown during a 60th anniversary celebration for the Fremont hotel-casino at 200 Fremont St. in Las Vegas on Wednesday, May 18, 2016.

Fremont 60th Anniversary

Former Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman, second from left, offers a toast during a 60th anniversary celebration for the Fremont hotel-casino at 200 Fremont St. in Las Vegas on Wednesday, May 18, 2016. Also on hand were Bill Boyd, executive chairman for Boyd Gaming, second from right, Jim Sullivan, general manager of the Fremont hotel-casino, and showgirls. Launch slideshow »

Such is the life of Bill Boyd: One moment, he’s sequestered in a board meeting in Phoenix for Western Alliance Bancorporation, the holding company for Bank of Nevada. The next, he’s steeled away a few minutes to talk of a time when he was a 10-year-old kid in Las Vegas “when there were only 15,000 people in the whole valley.”

Boyd speaks from high altitude and at ground level when he talks of this city. Taking the lead from his legendary father, Sam, the founder and executive chairman of Boyd Gaming continues to enrich the community with his vision and generosity. On Saturday night, he was honored at the Keep Memory Alive Power of Love Gala at MGM Grand Garden Arena with a Community Leadership Award for his long history of philanthropy in Las Vegas.

The event is the annual fundraiser for the Lou Ruvo Cleveland Clinic for Brain Health. The night was a tribute to the legendary entertainer Tony Bennett, who turns 90 in August.

Launched in 1995 at a dinner at Spago at the Forum Shops at Caesars, more than $100 million has been raised to develop the center and fund its research and treatment facilities. Every year, the gala marks the largest collection of influential Las Vegans assembled in a single evening. Saturday was no exception, as Boyd was honored by a video clip outlining his charitable legacy.

“This is really the greatest, most humbling award I have received,” said the 84-year old gaming industry legend. “I have always had the feeling that was passed down to me from my father, which is, to be successful, you have to give back. I have always done that.”

Chiefly, Boyd is responsible for the $30 million endowment that created the William S. Boyd School of Law at UNLV, established in 1998 as the only law school in the state.

“It was very expensive for students from Nevada to enroll in school out of state, places like Utah,” said Boyd, who sought to open an institution of higher learning in Las Vegas as a complement to the University of Nevada School of Medicine at the UNR. “We have a very healthy program today.”

Last June, Boyd donated $2.5 million to the William F. Harrah College of Hotel Administration at UNLV, partnering with the university on a new academic building. Further, Boyd has supported Opportunity Village, the National Center for Responsible Gaming and Three Square Food Bank.

He owes his passion for charity, in part, to his long history in the city.

“If you have lived here for a long time and were raised here, you have a strong tendency to want to give back,” Boyd said. “That has been true for myself, because I was raised here. I didn’t come to Las Vegas at a later stage of my life. This is my home.”

Boyd practiced law for 15 years in Las Vegas. He and his father were partners in the original Union Plaza downtown and Eldorado Casino in Henderson. The father and son launched Boyd Gaming in 1973. Two years later, Bill Boyd left his practice and took on the gaming industry full-time.

He remains as busy as ever — multitasking during board meetings a chief example of that quality — as Boyd Gaming in April purchased the Aliante resort and the two Cannery properties in the Las Vegas Valley.

Asked if it is possible to maintain a sense of community today, when more than 2 million people have descended on Las Vegas since his days as a child, Boyd insists it is.

“We were a desert community back then,” he said. “That is the biggest difference, but we still have a very strong sense of community, and we have a lot of people here who do care and come together for these great causes.”

One of Boyd’s favorite quotes, which he attributes to Winston Churchill, is: “We make a living by what we get — but we make a life by what we give.” For a man who walked to Fifth Street School 75 years ago, and who today still walks the casinos owned by his company in Las Vegas, those are words to live by.

Follow John Katsilometes on Twitter at Twitter.com/JohnnyKats. Also, follow Kats on Instagram at Instagram.com/JohnnyKats1.

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