Former convention authority director Hornsby dies at 76

Len Hornsby for eight years ran a Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority that tested the boundaries of his frustration.

Hornsby told the Las Vegas Sun in a Sept. 20, 1980, story that he resigned because meddlers on the board made it an impossible job.

"Some board members would take up your time for ridiculous things like where they would be seated on the board or getting them comps at hotels for themselves or friends," he said. "Days at a time have been taken up by trivia such as this."

Nevertheless, Hornsby took pride that under his leadership many new conventions were brought to Las Vegas, some of which still come here annually.

Services for Len Hornsby, who at age 76 died Jan. 30 at a local hospice, will be 2:15 p.m. Friday at Southern Nevada Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Boulder City. Desert Memorial Cremation and Burial Society handled arrangements.

Hornsby, a Las Vegas resident of 38 years, said he long faced ethical dilemmas as he tried to run the day-to-day operations of the local tourism board.

For example, during his tenure, the Sun reported that Sports Illustrated magazine gave Super Bowl tickets to the LVCVA that were supposed to be used for a promotion but instead were used by board members.

Hornsby recalled how several board members also would ask him to arrange complimentary shows and meals at hotels -- requests that today would bring them before an ethics board for review.

Once Hornsby had a board member who did not like the position of his seat in the board room. Hornsby contacted other members and asked them to switch positions. In the end, the disgruntled board member decided to stay in his assigned chair.

Hornsby started a process for board members to travel to various cities for promotional programs -- a concept he grew to regret as the travel arrangements grew out of control and board members "became a nuisance for the staff" on the trips, he said.

But Hornsby also had a sense of humor. For an interview with a Sun reporter at his home days after his August 1980 resignation was made public, Hornsby wore a yellow T-shirt that had printed across the front: "Take this job and shove it."

Hornsby said that despite the in-house politics, he had a love affair with his high-profile job that paid $47,000 a year.

He studied the files of the trade associations that steadfastly had refused to come to Las Vegas and contacted representatives of those organizations. They told him Las Vegas' image problem kept the groups away.

"(They) thought the town was Mafia controlled, that no one would attend meetings and that we were the original Sin City," Hornsby said in a Sept. 14, 1980, Sun story.

However, Hornsby eventually convinced the American Dental Association, National Association of Broadcasters, National Electrical Contractors Association, Associated Equipment Distributors and the National Institute of Dry Cleaning, among others, to bring to Las Vegas their conventions, which each drew 10,000 to 25,000 delegates.

Born Jan. 20, 1924, in Boston, Hornsby graduated from Emerson College with a communications degree and attended the University of Missouri before serving in the Army Air Corps during World War II.

After the war Hornsby worked in California as manager of the Community Club Awards in 11 Western states and in New York as a representative for the Radio Advertising Bureau before coming to Las Vegas in 1962 as vice president and general manager of KENO radio.

In 1968 he was named an assistant sales manager of the LVCVA and later was made sales manager. In March 1971 Hornsby was named director of convention sales.

In 1977 he was elected president of the Western American Convention and Travel Institute and Nevada World Trade and International Tourism Association. In June that year Hornsby also underwent prostate surgery at Sunrise Hospital.

In 1981 Hornsby was named assistant to the president of the Frontier Hotel.

Hornsby is survived by his ex-wife and friend, Rochelle Hornsby; two sons, Evan Hornsby of Los Angeles and Michael Pratt of Denver; two daughters, Cyndi Jones of Grand Junction, Colo., and Susan Buck of Oklahoma; and a sister, Louise Kaufman of Massachusetts.

The family asks donations be made in Hornsby's memory to the American Cancer Society or the Odyssey Hospice.

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