Rothman, Hal 1958-2007 (Hal K. Rothman)

OBITUARY NOTICE—

See index for CA sketch: Born August 11, 1958, in Baton Rouge, LA; died of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, February 25, 2007, in Henderson, NV. Historian, educator, and author. A history professor at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas, Rothman was best remembered as a passionate expert on the cultural history of Las Vegas. Initially attending the University of Illinois at Urbana—Champaign, he dropped out of school to become a rock 'n' roll band roadie. Once this youthful interest was satiated, he returned to his former school and completed a B.A. in 1980. Rothman then attended the University of Texas at Austin for his M.A. in 1982 and Ph.D. in 1985. He briefly taught at the University of New Mexico, then was an assistant professor of history and director of the Program in Public History at Wichita State University from 1987 until 1992. Rothman joined the University of Nevada at Las Vegas faculty, where he was professor and chaired the history department from 2002 to 2005. During much of his career, he specialized in environmental history, publishing such titles as Preserving Different Pasts: The Antiquities Act of 1906 and the National Monuments (1989), The Greening of a Nation?: Environmentalism in the U.S. since 1945 (1997), and Saving the Planet: The American Response to the Environment in the Twentieth Century (2000). In more recent years, however, he also wrote increasingly on the American West and was best known for Neon Metropolis: How Las Vegas Started the Twenty-first Century (2002). The book marked him as a kind of authority on a city that more often inspired embarrassment than serious academic consideration among historians. Rothman, however, found Las Vegas a fascinating topic and a good jumping off point for commentary on social issues and popular culture in America. He also coedited The Grit beneath the Glitter: Tales from the Real Las Vegas (2002). A popular professor at his university, Rothman was named distinguished professor in 2006. He was the recipient of many other honors, as well, including a William Morris Award for excellence in scholarship in 1992, a Spur Award for Best Contemporary Nonfiction in 1999, and a Southwest Book Award in 2003, for editing The Culture of Tourism, the Tourism of Culture: Selling the Past to the Present in the American Southwest. In 2004, he was granted a Harry Reid Silver State Research Award and was named to the Nevada Writers Hall of Fame. His writings on Las Vegas amusingly led to the creation of the Hal Rothman Award, which is given to the person who can invent an academic-sounding word or phrase to describe ogling naked showgirls for the purpose of research.

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Los Angeles Times, March 1, 2007, p. B8.

Washington Post, March 3, 2007, p. B6.