Stillings, pioneer financial officer at DI, Boyd Gaming, dies

Wednesday, Dec. 29, 2004 | 9:16 a.m.

George L. Stillings Sr. often had brushes with Las Vegas history during a career in the hotel industry in Nevada and California that touched six decades.

He was the Desert Inn's chief financial officer in 1966 when Howard Hughes bought the resort, ushering in Southern Nevada's corporate gaming age.

Stillings, in a similar post at the Stardust, struggled against what he called "infiltration" by mob skimmers and quit when the Argent Corp. took control in the 1970s during a dark period in local history that became the subject of the film "Casino."

Stillings, who as an executive and a founding stockholder in Boyd Gaming Corp., helped oversee the finances for the construction of Sam's Town on Boulder Highway, died Sunday following a brief illness. He was 85.

Services for the Las Vegas resident of 43 years will be 1 p.m. Thursday at the Eternal Hills Memorial Chapel in Oceanside, Calif.

"When local resorts needed someone to help them with financial issues, my father was one of the first people they'd call," said George Stillings Jr., who for the last 28 years has worked the bell desk at Boyd Gaming's California hotel, where his father once was an executive.

"He was dedicated to the task and would put in many hours to try to keep things straight."

Stillings also worked for a while as comptroller at the Tropicana.

After 15 years in the hotel business in Southern California, Stillings was brought to Las Vegas in 1961 by Stardust co-owner and gaming pioneer Moe Dalitz to work in management at both the Desert Inn and Stardust hotels.

Although the job was not called chief financial officer at the time, Stillings served in that capacity until Dalitz tried to force guest Hughes to leave the penthouse suites at the Desert Inn, which resulted in Hughes buying the resort and bringing in his own management crew.

Stillings remained at the Stardust until the mid-1970s, just before Argent Corp., headed by Allen Glick and gambler Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal, took over.

Stillings Jr., a Henderson resident, said his father saw the handwriting on the wall and quit the Stardust to go to Boyd Gaming and assist with the development of the company's flagship property, Sam's Town, which opened in 1979.

In 1983, mobster Tony Spilotro and 14 others were indicted on charges of skimming more than $2 million from the Stardust. Boyd Gaming eventually acquired the Stardust for its gaming empire.

Born April 3, 1919, in North Dakota, Stillings graduated from San Diego State University and joined the Navy during World War II, serving as a paymaster on a battleship in the South Pacific and climbing the ranks to lieutenant commander.

After the war, he returned to California to work in the hotel industry, dreaming one day he would get to work for his favorite resort, the Hotel del Coronado in San Diego.

In the late 1980s, in the twilight of his career, Stillings' dream came true when he was named executive vice president of the Coronado. He retired in 1990 and returned to Las Vegas, where he was an avid horseman.

Stillings also remained a major stockholder in Boyd Gaming. His son said he was thrilled last week when Boyd Gaming stock, which at one point had been as low as $2 a share, hit $41 a share.

In addition to his son, Stillings is survived by two daughters, Nancy Hart of Sacramento and Robin Stillings Raiford of Irving, Texas; a brother, Roy Stillings of Chula Vista, Calif.; three sisters, Lois Fisher of Las Vegas, Fern Harris of Wasilla, Alaska, and Ruth Lampert of Makoti, N.D.; six grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.

Stillings was preceded in death in 2001 by his wife of 52 years, Roverta Jean Stillings.05