History professor, Las Vegas expert Hal Rothman dies

ASSOCIATED PRESS

LAS VEGAS (AP) - Hal Rothman, a writer, professor and expert on all things Las Vegas, has died after a yearlong battle with Lou Gehrig's disease. He was 48.

Rothman hosted a radio show, wrote a column in the Las Vegas Sun and wrote several books. He died Sunday night of complications related to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, his wife, Lauralee Rothman, said.

Rothman began teaching history at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas in 1992, when the Las Vegas Strip was leading southern Nevada into a decade-long economic boom. He focused on the city's reinvention and growth in his 2002 book, "Neon Metropolis: How Las Vegas Started the Twenty-first Century."

His analysis made him the media's choice for thoughtful perspective on the city. He was quoted in or appeared on almost every national news outlets, including The New York Times, Newsweek magazine, ABC World News Tonight, The Wall Street Journal, the CBS Evening News, CNN and National Public Radio.

"I'm on television more than anybody who isn't a member of the Screen Actors Guild," Rothman joked in the Las Vegas Review-Journal in 2003.

Though he became known as a historian of modern Las Vegas, Rothman's areas of expertise also included environmental history and the history of the American West. He was the chairman of UNLV history department from 2002 to 2005.

"In Las Vegas, you can pick your fantasy," Rothman wrote in an Oct. 29 op-ed piece in the Los Angeles Times. "In the rest of America, you don't always get to pick."

Rothman is survived by his wife and their two children, Talia and Brent. A memorial service will be held Wednesday at Palm Mortuary in Las Vegas.

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Information from: Las Vegas Review-Journal, http://www.lvrj.com

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