Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Pioneer gaming figure Morris dies

Rod Morris got his start in the gaming industry nearly 70 years ago, cleaning spittoons in an illegal Chicago gambling hall. While a Marine in the Solomon Islands during World War II, he operated a makeshift casino.

The Illinois native was a natural for Las Vegas.

After his honorable discharge in 1945, Morris drove to the then small desert gaming oasis for what he thought would be a one-night visit. That one night turned into 58 years.

Morris opened the first dealing school in 1951 and appeared on the "What's My Line" television show in 1955.

Morris, who for 14 years owned and operated the Nevada School of Dealing and served as an executive at several Nevada casinos through the early 1990s, died Thursday at his Las Vegas home following a lengthy illness. He was 89.

Services were to be at 2 p.m. today at Palm Mortuary Downtown, followed by burial in Palm Memorial Park.

"Rod was among our true gaming pioneers," said Harvey Diederich, a longtime friend who was director of marketing at the Union Plaza when Morris was casino manager. Morris worked for the Plaza from 1971 until his retirement in 1992.

"He was from the old school: always on the floor of the casino, proud of his position, friendly -- knew all of the players' names -- and had the respect of all of the casino's employees," Diederich said. "He was a rock solid guy of great integrity."

Morris was born Jan. 28, 1914, on a farm in Wapella, Ill. His parents lost their farm in 1929 because of the Great Depression, and when his father left to earn a living as a poker player, Rod and his sister were raised by their mother, a seamstress.

At age 20 he got his first job in a Chicago casino as a janitor, where spittoon cleaning was one of his duties. Morris worked his way up to club manager.

In the late 1930s Morris left Chicago for Decatur, Ill., where he worked at the Lakeside club and later at Caroline's as a craps and roulette dealer.

A day after Pearl Harbor was bombed, a broke Morris was standing outside the Lincoln Square Theatre in Decatur when he saw a Marine exit with beautiful girls on each arm. He decided then to join the Marines, his family said.

As a member of the First Marine Division, Morris saw action during World War II at Guadalcanal, Peleliu Island and in the Solomon Islands.

After the Solomons were secured, Morris, a sergeant, built poker and craps tables and fashioned a roulette wheel out of bamboo to run a profitable, albeit unsanctioned, casino, he later said.

After his discharge in San Diego, Morris was driving back to Illinois when he saw a sign for Las Vegas. Having never been to the city, he decided to check it out. That night at the Boulder Club, the casino manager asked Morris if he could deal. He got a job and stayed.

Morris was a craps and 21 dealer at the Last Frontier before becoming owner of the Caliente Cove in Caliente in 1950. A year later, he sold his interest in that property.

Concerned about where Southern Nevada casinos would get their future crop of well-trained gaming dealers, Morris, along with his first wife, Sue, opened the Nevada School of Dealing in downtown Las Vegas in 1951. It is crediting with being the prototype for many such schools that followed.

Morris parlayed his success as a dealing school operator into an appearance on the popular 1950s TV game show "What's My Line." Panelist Bennett Cerf correctly guessed Morris' occupation as a teacher of croupiers.

The Morrises operated the school until 1965. They later owned Sue's Liquors in Las Vegas. She died in 1973.

While still operating the school, Morris worked as shift boss and manager at the Las Vegas Club and in a similar post at Del Webb's Mint Hotel, now part of Binion's Horseshoe. From 1965 to 1970, he worked for Del Webb's Sahara-Tahoe before becoming shift manager at the Holiday Hotel in Reno for a year.

In 1971, Morris returned to Las Vegas, invested in the Plaza and became one of its shift managers. In 1975 he was promoted to vice president and casino manager. Morris retired from that downtown property as director of casino operations in 1992.

Morris was a member of the Marine Corps League of Las Vegas and the Elks Lodge 1468.

He is survived by his wife, Julie Morris of Las Vegas, and a son, Michael Morris of Norfolk, Va. He was preceded in death by his sister, Marybelle.

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