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Mike Vlaovich

 

FAMILY:  I’m married to current wife for 30 years (actually only wife, but she hates it when I introduce her as current wife). Two groan (not a misspelling) kids.

OCCUPATION:  Architect, retired, then only part time retired, then swore I’d never answer the phone again once I retired fully again

FAVORITE HIGH SCHOOL MEMORIES:  Short skirts, playing soccer and short skirts. In that order. Then TCT’s at Macayo’s after football and basketball games. Oh yeah, the time Victor Rodriguez rode in Chuck McHaffie’s trunk to a soccer game and was forgotten about until coach asked, “Where’s Victor?” Being Daphne Garcia’s dance partner in Oklahoma! was a “Thank-You-God” moment. Linda Hepler and I still laugh about the time we tried to dance to In A Gadda Da Vida. And the Homecoming, Sadie Hawkins and Prom events spent with Lisa Stephens, Sue Wilgus and Pam Duesing (no attempt to change the names to protect the innocent).

 HOW I LIKE TO SPEND MY TIME:  Making stuff. As an architect, I spent 40 years putting things on paper or in a computer or in someone’s mind for someone else to make (build), so now that I’m semi-retired I have time to virtually live in the real world rather than in living in a virtual world. And I play lots of computer Scrabble, so I haven’t left the virtual world completely.

FUN TIDBIT(S) ABOUT ME:  I was within minutes of being Dick Clark’s best man at his 7-7-77 wedding at the Thunderbird/Silverbird Hotel when his Best Man’s plane was late and the wedding was scheduled between the early and late Rock and Roll Revival shows. I had gotten to know Dick and Kari from working at the hotel’s pool (along with Craig Hawkins and Gary Kellogg) for years when the couple would spend their days working deals poolside during the Dick Clark R&R Revival engagements. This was well before cell phones, so phone lines were strung from the PBX Operators’ Room window (where Eugene Robichaud’s mother worked) to a grassy area behind our pool guest check-in stand.  Dick and Kari were two of the nicest people and invited me to their wedding, held in a banquet room on the second floor of the hotel. Time was running out for the Best Man to arrive. After 45 years, I don’t recall if Dick or I initiated the banter about my being his best man, but the Best Man arrived shortly after and I was relegated to just being a wedding guest along with a slew of ‘50s and ‘60s musical stars including Bo Diddley, Dion and Freddy “Boom Boom” Cannon (the ones I specifically recall being there).

One other brush with fame I was a participant in involved Marilyn Chambers, a Union Plaza Hotel Room and whipped cream. Best to not elaborate here, but am happy to share details at the reunion.

HIGHTLIGHTS OF MY LIFE SINCE HIGH SCHOOL:  Chronologically: Voted UNLV Greek God (1976); Graduated UNLV with a B.A. (1976); Graduated U of Idaho with a B. Architecture (1981); Married Shelley (1991); Having my name on various government buildings’ bronze dedication plaques as the buildings’ architect (CCSD elementary schools Antonello, Dailey, Kahre, Katz and Rundle; Laughlin Regional Government Center; and West Las Vegas Library Theatre); Hanging up my private practice shingle and began a career as a public agency architect together with a certification as a building official (1997); Retired from position of Manager of the City of Las Vegas Architectural (vertical construction) Section, personally overseeing design of over $500M in construction projects (2019).