queerplaces - Claude Howard

Queer Places:
Camelot Health Spa, 5090 S. Maryland Parkway
Union Cemetery Bakersfield, Kern County, California, USA

Claude Irving Howard (October 28, 1905 – July 18, 1998) opened the Camelot Health Spa, 5090 S. Maryland Parkway, Las Vegas, a trendy spot at the time with clothing-optional pool areas. It was there that the white mustachioed man was seen scrubbing out the drains. He owned several Camelot locations in Las Vegas during the 1970s and ’80s, the Sun said. “Claude’s life was the portrait of the American success story,” said Bob Beers, city councilman. “He … made a ton of money but kept working and turned it into tons of money. Then, when he was an old man, he donated much of it to the community, and only took credit when some civic group forced it on him.” During his lifetime gave away as much as $20 million to local institutions including colleges, hospitals, police departments and area charities.

Howard's many contributions to the community include:

Countless gifts to UNLV, which named its public safety building after him.
$6 million to the University of Nevada Medical School, including $1 million for construction of the school's family medical center in Reno.
A building worth $2 million to the Community College of Southern Nevada's Charleston Boulevard Campus.
A building to the city of North Las Vegas that became its justice court.
$300,000 for the Metropolitan Police Department to buy a helicopter and tens of thousands of dollars more for computer equipment for Metro's records bureau.
$300,000 to renovate the pediatrics wing at the University Medical Center, then Southern Nevada Memorial Hospital.
A cash gift that enabled Child Haven to expand its campus for abused and neglected children.
Cash to purchase the North Las Vegas Police Department's radio system and renovate its jail.
Cash to build a jail and police substation in Laughlin.

"As long as I make money, I'll give it away," Howard said in a brief public statement in 1986. Publicity shy, he rarely gave interviews. Also, because many of Howard's gifts were given anonymously, the full scope of his generosity to the Las Vegas community may never be learned.

Born Oct. 28, 1905, in Bakersfield, Calif., Howard grew up in the a Kern County orphanage. He was on his own by age 15. Howard's many early jobs included working in a butcher shop, in a hospital kitchen, at an accounting firm and in a fix-it shop. During World War II, he was a civilian ship builder in San Francisco.

Howard got his real estate license in California, where he bought old buildings, renovated them and sold them. He moved to Las Vegas in 1953 and built apartments throughout the valley. Throughout his life, Howard shunned the trappings of wealth. He often wore old sports shirts and discount store-type trousers, even to ceremonies where he was to receive awards for his generosity.

Claude Irving Howard, who grew up in an orphanage and made his fortune by building more than 4,000 apartments in Southern Nevada in 45 years, died on July 18, 1998, at Desert Springs Hospital. He was 92.

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