Columnist Dean Juipe: Ghanem remains intriguing

Dean Juipe

Friday, Aug. 24, 2001 | 10:55 a.m.

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at juipe@lasvegassun.com or 259-4084.

At the risk of being overly sentimental, I decided to write this "before" instead of "after."

As is fairly well known in the community, Dr. Elias Ghanem is in declining health and is back at his Canyon Gate home after a hospital visit this week from ex-president Bill Clinton, among others.

The chairman of the Nevada State Athletic Commission has had a lengthy battle on his hands, one that started with kidney cancer three years ago and led to an assortment of debilitating problems that included his loss of sight.

But, from all indications, he has yet to lose the spark and verve that has made him one of the most significant and influential figures in the history of the State of Nevada. As recently as Thursday he was attending to commission business and was described as alert and driven.

Talk to whomever you please about Ghanem and the remarks follow a similar course: He has always treated the least prominent man as importantly as the most. The homeless were as welcome as the aristocratic at his Las Vegas Medical Centers, and the four-round fighter is addressed as politely as the heavyweight world champion when he is dealing with his beloved sport of boxing.

And he has seen his share of both the rich and the poor, although it was his association with celebrities such as Elvis Presley that initially brought him into the limelight and national attention.

Such an ascent must have seemed unlikely even to him when he came to the United States with $150 in his pocket. As he once said, he slept in his car for a while when first attending Duke University.

There were other, similar stories that he alluded to that routinely piqued my interest, especially when I discovered that the definitive Ghanem story had never been written. The intricate details of his life have yet to be recorded, and twice we have had scheduled interviews canceled during these recent trying months.

That's OK, I've always said to myself, attempting to respect his privacy and delicate condition. But what a tale he could tell, beginning with the odd turn his life took at the outset as an Israeli born in Lebanon.

In time he became a med school grad from UCLA who spoke fluently in several languages.

He also became a safety advocate within the sport of boxing and championed several causes in his intermittent role as chairman of the NSAC. He remains the commission chairman today, handling business items on the phone and receiving a daily briefing from his associates.

In all, he has put in 14 years on the commission and friend and foe alike have found him candid and caring. As fighters such as Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield can verify, Ghanem has exhibited a fairness that extends to the knack of periodically taking a tough position without being categorized as rigidly authoritative or unbending.

The commission's interests, the state's interests and boxing's interests have always superseded his own.

Charming, debonair and dignified, his life has run the gamut and crossed any number of social and economic boundaries. It has been a most intriguing ride, and, for that, all of Nevada is appreciative.