Goldberg remembered for private acts of giving

David Strow

Friday, Nov. 3, 2000 | 11:10 a.m.

To most in the gaming industry, Arthur Goldberg will be remembered as a titan in the business, who needed just 10 years to build the largest gaming company in the world.

But on Thursday, as industry executives, friends and casino workers alike gathered to remember him, the late chief executive of Park Place Entertainment Corp. of Las Vegas was also remembered for his deeds outside the office, for giving more than anyone would ever know.

"Arthur liked to say, 'Time is the most important blessing we have been given. Use it wisely,"' said J. Kenneth Looloian, a Park Place director. "I don't know anyone who used his time on earth more efficiently than Arthur.

"We feel grief for him, that he was able to live only a short period of time. His accomplishments were such that he deserved that opportunity (for a long life)."

Goldberg died of complications from bone marrow failure Oct. 19 at Johns Hopkins Medical Center in Baltimore at the age of 58. A memorial service in his honor was held Thursday at Temple Beth Sholom in Summerlin.

Attendees included many executives from across the gaming industry -- but also included employees from Park Place properties. From Goldberg's first Las Vegas property, Bally's Las Vegas, came a pair of luggage handlers; from one of his newest, Caesars Palace, came a group of uniformed security guards.

"He was a friend of presidents, confidant of senators, friend of governors," said Clive Cummis, executive vice president and general counsel of Park Place.

From his start in gaming at Bally Manufacturing in 1990, Goldberg quickly became one of Las Vegas' most powerful executives. Yet Dr. Elias Ghanem, chairman of the Nevada State Athletic Commission, said Goldberg never considered his Strip neighbors his enemies.

"He didn't consider any of the properties (in Las Vegas) his competitors," Ghanem said. "He considered them his friends. It is Las Vegas he thought about. He said, 'Why have enmity against these people? Why not work the other way?"'

But the intensely private executive, well known as a philanthropist, also reached out to every day people, Looloian said. Goldberg helped encourage several young people to go to college, and helped one young person overcome a drug problem, Looloian said.

"No one will ever be able to chronicle his private works," Looloian said. "He did so many things on his own, and didn't tell anybody. He did 100 percent more than anyone will ever know about."

That attitude extended to his friends as well. Both Looloian and Ghanem recalled how Goldberg called virtually every day to check in while they battled illness.

It was Goldberg, Ghanem said, who urged him to enjoy a night with friends the day Ghanem was diagnosed with cancer -- then, the next day, helped Ghanem arrange treatment at UCLA Medical Center.

Goldberg was ever the optimist about his own illness as well -- Cummis remembered speaking to Goldberg just two days before he died, making plans to see him at Johns Hopkins, only to receive a call the next day that it was too late, that Goldberg had taken a turn for the worse.

Despite his passing, Goldberg would want life to go on, Cummis said.

"There aren't any words to express the depths of sorrow and grief those of us who knew him are feeling today," Cummis said. "But those of us who know him know he'd say to us, 'That was yesterday. Get to work. Get it done."'