Wing Fong (1925-2005) and Lilly Fong (1925-2002)
Nevada Business Leaders and Education Advocates
The son of rice farmers in China, Wing Fong was orphaned as a child, so at age 13, his uncles brought him to Las Vegas, where they owned a restaurant downtown. His first job as a teenager was busing dishes. He learned English, worked his way through high school and college, became a bookkeeper, and then opened a grocery store with a friend. He began investing in real estate and eventually became a leading real estate developer in Las Vegas, building several shopping centers, apartments, and numerous other projects. He also owned a restaurant called Fong’s Garden, a Las Vegas landmark for many years.
In 1963, he was asked to join the board of directors for Nevada State Bank, and served on the bank’s board for more than 40 years. Fong was one of the first developers to build on the outskirts of town and he is credited with giving jobs to African Americans in the 1960s, when job opportunities for racial minorities were limited. In 1968, during a time of racial unrest in Nevada, Gov. Paul Laxalt appointed him to the state’s Equal Rights Commission.
After receiving a Bachelor of Education degree from Arizona State University, Lilly Hing Fong overcame racial prejudice to become the first Chinese-American elementary school teacher in Las Vegas. She later worked in the Fong real estate business alongside her husband. Lilly Fong worked tirelessly for education during 52 years of community service. She was elected as Regent for the University of Nevada System in 1974 and served for 10 years as the first Asian-American regent. For this service, as well as her many private efforts to support the university, UNLV named its geoscience building after her.
Wing and Lilly Fong were major contributors to UNLV, and in 1968 Wing Fong was the chief fundraiser for the Judy Bayley Theatre and Artemus W. Ham Concert Hall. The Fongs also raised funds to build the Central Plaza connecting those two buildings. In recognition of their many contributions to education and to the community as a whole, an elementary school in western Las Vegas is named after Wing and Lilly Fong.