Longtime casino executive, motorcyclist Blair dies at 51

Wednesday, May 30, 2001 | 9:34 a.m.

Bruce Blair once aspired to joining the Hell's Angels motorcycle club, but he saw the pitfalls of such an outlaw life.

Blair's career goals took a more promising direction when he left Oakland, Calif., in the late 1970s to take a job as a casino dealer in Lake Tahoe. From there, he came to Las Vegas and carved out a 20-year career in casino management.

In his off hours, Blair would hop on his Harley-Davidson and trek to events such as the annual Laughlin River Run to rekindle the dreams of his youth with fellow law-abiding -- but nonetheless tough -- bikers.

Bruce Alexander Blair, who long worked as a shift boss at several small Gold Strike Corp. properties and more recently at the Excalibur on the Strip, died Thursday following a yearlong battle with cancer. He was 51.

Services for the longtime Henderson resident will be 2 p.m. Thursday at the Topaz Chapel of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at Eastern Avenue and Pebble Road. Visitation will be until 7 p.m. today at Palm Mortuary, 7600 S. Eastern Ave., and 1-2 p.m. Thursday at the chapel.

"He traveled with Hell's Angels as a teenager, saw the trouble ahead and decided it was not for him," said Blair's son Zachery Whaley. "He was a strong-willed man. The doctors gave him only two months to live, but he stayed with us a whole year after that diagnosis. He just wasn't ready to go after only two months. He lived his whole life on his terms."

Tina Whaley said her father knew how to have great fun and respect others at work and at play.

"We had a blast going with him on many family vacations to California and Utah and on outings to the lake and on camping trips," she said. "The most remarkable part about him is that he had no obligation to us -- everything he did was out of the kindness of his heart."

Tina and Zachery Whaley and three of his other six kids are stepchildren. They requested to be referred to as "sons" and "daughters" because of the close relationship they shared during the 10 years before Blair married their mother, Tamara Whaley, last June 7, and since.

An imposing, muscular figure at 6 feet 4 inches tall, Blair could look intimidating -- especially, Tina Whaley said, to the boyfriends she would bring home to meet her folks. But in the workplace he was a caring, compassionate supervisor, his family said.

"As a boss he was fair in his dealings, never showed favoritism and tried to help his employees resolve their problems," Tina Whaley said.

Born June 24, 1949, in Oakland, Blair did not talk much about the years before he came to Las Vegas, other than to share stories about his lifelong love for motorcycles. He also said for a while he installed asbestos in California buildings -- a job that would be blamed for the cancer that killed him.

In 1981 Blair went to work as a shift boss for the Pioneer Club in Las Vegas. He worked in similar positions for Gold Strike properties, including Railroad Pass outside Boulder City and Nevada Landing in Jean. After Gold Strike merged with Circus Circus to form Mandalay Bay Corp., Blair was hired as a shift boss at the Excalibur, but worked there just six months before becoming ill.

Nonsectarian for most of his life, Blair embraced the Mormon faith in recent years and last year was baptized in the religion of his wife and stepchildren.

In addition to his wife, son and daughter, all of Henderson, Blair is survived by three other sons, Nicholas Blair of Las Vegas, Mathew Whaley of Henderson and Jason Whaley of Cedar City, Utah; another daughter, Tara Whaley of Henderson; a brother, Chris Blair of Oakland; and two grandchildren, Jason and Joey Whaley, both of Cedar City.