Where I Stand — Brian Greenspun: A good doctor’s diploma

Friday, Dec. 18, 1998 | 12:11 p.m.

IS THERE a doctor in the house?

As much as we all might want doctors of various varieties to examine the collective health of our nation as we mush our way through a national stage play from which only Gilbert and Sullivan could find humor, the doctor I seek is a lot closer to hearth and home.

I refer, of course, to my mother, Barbara Greenspun, who has been practicing her own brand of family medicine for many decades, almost all of them in Las Vegas. As of Saturday morning, thanks to the good sense and good graces of Dr. Carol Harter and the Board of Regents of the State of Nevada, Barbara will be forever known as Dr. Greenspun. For tomorrow she will be awarded an honorary doctorate in humane letters at UNLV's first winter commencement exercises.

And she will be in good company. The other honorary doctorate -- receiving a doctor of laws degree -- will be our outgoing Gov. Bob Miller. He, too, is most deserving of this honor from the academic community as it meets for the first time in winter to honor UNLV graduates.

Enough about Bob, though. For as much as she will hate this, I want to talk about my mother. Maybe, deep down, it is because she has no use for public accolades and, in fact, shuns the spotlight at every opportunity, that this column will have even greater meaning. I hope so. But, even if it doesn't do it for her, it will make me and my siblings feel good.

That's because we have known, like most children know about their mothers, the kind of woman she has always been. And, as sister Susan says, it is about time the rest of this community understands the important role she has played in Las Vegas as it has grown from infancy and the role she has played in our home as we, too, have grown from our infancies to adulthood.

It has been easy, in fact a no-brainer, to have overlooked practically everyone else from the early days of Las Vegas when it came to bestowing honors, accolades and awards on my father, Hank Greenspun. That's because throughout his life he was a bigger-than-life-like hero who exemplified the kind of swashbuckling, dragon slayer who would not back down from a fight. The bigger the foe, the better the fight. People understandably seek out those people in society to use as examples for newer generations.

In the case of Barbara Greenspun, in appropriately recognizing Hank for his achievements, our community and state have missed one of the most deserving of Nevada's citizens. And it was always with my mother's complete acquiescence and understanding because she, too, realized the stature of the man she had married. She was content to play second fiddle.

I would like to say that we, as her children, always knew the truth, but that may be more wishful than willful thinking. For the truth is that Barbara was always the quiet strength behind her husband and even we missed the signals more often than not.

But since our father's been gone for almost a decade, we have learned more than we ever thought possible about our mother. And so has this community. For what we, as her children, were content to believe was a genuine member of the weaker sex has always been an unbelievably strong member of our society. We just never really saw it.

As a mother, grandmother, businesswoman, social force and charitable example, there are few, if any, members of our community who can match the record of Barbara Greenspun. As a mother who practiced quiet strength and taught old world (that's old Ireland) values, she managed to raise four children in a budding new community that had its roots in illegal gambling and other forms of societal ills that were generally frowned upon by polite society. And with the possible exception of this writer, she and my father did an outstanding job.

As for her role in the community, the difference between her actions in the early days and those of today are only different by degree. Having never forgotten "where she came from," Barbara Greenspun always understood the value of hard work and the value of a dollar. She never shirked from the former nor abused -- too much -- the latter. And more importantly, she insisted that her children learned this lesson above all others.

I can't say she was completely successful on the dollar part, but there is no question her children have been raised to understand the value of community and family and the hard work it takes to make both succeed. And those same values have been passed on to her grandchildren, who promise to continue in her and their grandfather's path. If ever there were a measure for success, it must be the nature and quality of those who follow in succeeding generations.

So tomorrow, when that doctorate is placed on her shoulders in recognition of what my mother has given during a lifetime in Las Vegas, it will be carried with the same grace, style and ease with which she has carried herself for more than five decades in this community. And in case she falters -- which she won't -- there will be a loving and pride-filled family gathered about to help her. Just like she has been there all these years to help us.

Is there a doctor in the house? You bet.

We congratulate her and call her Dr. Mom.