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User:TheYearbookTeacher/Maude Frazier

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Maude Frazier
22nd Lieutenant Governor of Nevada
In office
July 13, 1962 – January 7, 1963
GovernorGrant Sawyer
Preceded byRex Bell
Succeeded byPaul Laxalt
Member of the Nevada State Assembly
In office
1950–1962
Nevada Deputy Superintendent of Public Instruction
In office
1921–1927
Superintendent of Las Vegas Union School District
In office
1927–1947
Personal details
BornApril 4, 1881
Sauk County, Wisconsin
DiedJune 20, 1963(1963-06-20) (aged 82)
Las Vegas, Nevada
PartyDemocratic

Maude Frazier (April 4, 1881 – June 20, 1963)[1] was an American educator and politician who served as the 22nd lieutenant governor of Nevada. A member of the Democratic Party, Frazier was a member of the Nevada Assembly, elected to represent Clark County from 1950 to 1962.

Before running for office, Frazier was a Nevada deputy superintendent of public instruction over Southern Nevada from 1921–1927. For the following twenty years, from 1927–1947, she served as principal of Las Vegas High School and superintendent of the Las Vegas Union School District, which in 1956 became the Clark County School District.

As assemblywoman, Frazier was a vocal proponent of establishing a public university in Southern Nevada. As the chair of the education committee and member of the ways and means committee, she was the primary driver of establishing Nevada Southern University, later renamed the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

Early life and education

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Frazier was born on April 4, 1881, near Baraboo, Wisconsin, to William Henry Frazier and Mary Emma (neé Presnall) Frazier, both of Scottish heritage.[2]

Raised on a farm in Sauk County, she graduated from the Wisconsin State Normal School and began teaching in a small town.[3]

Frazier never married.

Career in education

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Maude Frazier (fifth from right) in 1946 as superintendent during a flag-raising memorial ceremony for a student's father killed during World War II.

In 1906 she moved to Genoa, Nevada, which offered her the position as principal and upper-grades teacher in a two-teacher schoolhouse.[3]

Until 1912, Frazier was a teacher and principal for the northern Nevada communities of Lovelock and Seven Troughs before heading south to Beatty. Between 1912 and 1917, she taught in Goldfield, Nevada before she became the principal of Sparks Elementary School in 1917, supervising a staff of 19 teachers.[3] Hired by the Nevada Board of Education in 1921, Frazier became the deputy superintendent of public instruction and supervised 75 schools in 63 districts with 2,824 students throughout Southern Nevada. Overseeing all public schools in Clark, Lincoln, Esmeralda, and Nye Counties, her administrative region covered approximately 40,000 sq mi (100,000 km2).[4]

Since road infrastructure was underdeveloped in the desert southwest in the 1920s, Frazier drove her Dodge roadster along the abandoned railroad track bed of the Las Vegas and Tonopah Railroad, decommissioned after World War I. An historical profile of Frazier in the Las Vegas Review-Journal stated that contemporary sources claim she was the first person to drive the 180 miles between Las Vegas and Goldfield in one day.[5]

Frazier secured a $187,000 to construct a new Las Vegas High School after the original burned down; the 1930s art deco structure she commissioned remains on the National Register of Historic Places. She retired from the district in 1946 but remained active in civic affairs and education policy. She was a member of the Las Vegas local union of the Federation of Business and Professional Women.[6]

Frazier in 1930 when she served as superintendent of the Las Vegas Union School District and principal of Las Vegas High School.

Nevada Assembly (1950–1962)

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Frazier first ran for the Nevada Assembly in 1948 and was elected in 1950. During her six terms in the Nevada Assembly from 1951 to 1962, Frazier served primarily on committees related to education, finance, and state institutions.[7]

Maude Frazier and University of Nevada Board of Trustees Chairman Silas Ross at a groundbreaking ceremony for Nevada Southern University, later renamed University of Nevada, Las Vegas in May of 1956.

Along with securing support for education funding increases, she sponsored two successful constitutional amendments reforming the Nevada Legislature. One resolution limited the number of days for which lawmakers could receive compensation during any single session, addressing longstanding concerns about extended sittings and budgetary discipline. The other repealed the constitutionally fixed duration of legislative sessions, enabling future adjustments through ordinary legislative processes rather than constitutional amendment.[8]

She was a member of the Assembly ways and means committee for four consecutive sessions beginning in 1955 and became the first woman in Nevada history to serve on a state budget committee. For all six terms, she was the chair of the education committee and served variously on the elections, social welfare, and state libraries committees.[7]

Education leaders gathered together for a social event given by Las Vegas Education Association in Las Vegas, Nevada. Frazier is the last seated from the right.

She co-authored the 1955 bill establishing a southern campus of the University of Nevada. First named Nevada Southern University, it would become an independent institution and be renamed the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

With an increasing population, a large number of Southern Nevadans began advocating for a local college or university, especially the around 2,500 federal employees who worked for the Bureau of Reclamation and the Bureau of Land Management in addition to airmen stationed at Nellis Air Force Base.[9]

Although most of the demand came from Boulder City and Henderson, Frazier believed that a more central location in the Las Vegas Valley would reach more students effectively in the long-run. Private, out-of-state institutions, such as Brigham Young University in Utah, had planned to begin establishing satellite campuses in the region. Most legislators from Northern Nevada argued that college-bound students could just as easily go to Reno or out of state, Frazier and others advocated for local accessibility and to prioritize keeping tuition in the local economy instead of having it go out-of-state.[10]

She helped secure a $200,000 state appropriation, contingent on $100,000 in local fundraising, and led grassroots fundraising efforts in which high school seniors canvassed Las Vegas neighborhoods for donations. In 1956, Frazier turned the first shovel of dirt for what became UNLV’s first building, Maude Frazier Hall.[11] In 1955, the University of Nevada, Reno awarded Frazier an honorary Doctor of Letters.Italic text[12]

Lieutenant governor of Nevada

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On July 13, 1962, at age 81, Governor Grant Sawyer appointed Frazier lieutenant governor following the death of Rex Bell, a Republican, making her the highest-ranking woman in Nevada history at the time.

Although Nevada requires that vacant constitutional offices be filled by an appointment of the same party, Frazier, a Democrat, filled the seat without controversy as Nevada Republican leadership did not want to make an appointment with a rapidly-approaching contentious primary election.[13] She served until January 1963, the remaining six months in Bell's term.[14]

She decided not to run for lieutenant governor, instead retiring from public office.[3]

Legacy and death

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She died in her sleep on June 20, 1963 at the age of 82, just six months after she left office.

In the Las Vegas Sun newspaper, Governor Grant Sawyer reacted to her death saying, "She was such a champion of public education and a distinguished member of the state legislature for many years. My family and I have lost a good friend and the people of Nevada have lost one of their strongest supporters."[15]

Maude Frazier Hall on the campus of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas was named after her to commemorate her role as chairwoman of the Nevada Assembly responsible for the legislation creating the university. The building was built and named after her in 1957 and served as the university's administrative offices.[11] In 2009, the building was demolished when costs to repair the building exceeded the cost to replace it. A portion of the building's wall was retained as a memorial, in which was installed a bronze bust of Frazier along with a plaque.[3]

In 2024, the Red Cross of Southern Nevada inaugurated an annual award named after Frazier for its volunteers who "exemplify the spirit of volunteerism and community service," named the Maude Frazier Founder's Award.[16]

See also

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References

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  1. ↑ Ohles, Frederik; Ohles, Shirley G.; Ohles, Shirley M.; Ramsay, John G. (1997). Biographical Dictionary of Modern American Educators. ISBN 9780313291333.
  2. ↑ Davenport, Robert W. (Spring 1992). "Early Years, Early Workers: The Genesis of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas". Nevada Historical Society Quarterly. 35 (1).
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Spiller, Jean (2010). "Maude Frazier". Nevada Women's History Project. Archived from the original on December 10, 2019. Retrieved October 4, 2025.
  4. ↑ Davenport 1971, p. 3.
  5. ↑ Hopkins, A.D. (February 7, 1999). "Maude Frazier". Las Vegas Review-Journal. Archived from the original on April 18, 2015. Retrieved October 5, 2025.
  6. ↑ Van Geel, Michelle L.; Bennett, Dana R. (2003). Women in the Nevada Legislature 1918–2003 (Report). Carson City: Nevada Legislative Counsel Bureau. pp. 35–37. Archived from the original on October 9, 2025. (Originally written by Bennett and published in 1993. Updated by Van Geel and published in 2003.)
  7. 1 2 Van Geel & Bennett, pp. 35–37.
  8. ↑ Van Geel & Bennett, p. 6.
  9. ↑ Davenport 1992, p. 4.
  10. ↑ Davenport 1992, p. 3–5.
  11. 1 2 Hsu, Charlotte (November 21, 2007). "Frazier is more than just a name on a building". Las Vegas Sun. Archived from the original on December 1, 2007.
  12. ↑ Sixty-Fifth Commencement (Graduation) Program of Events ((PDF)). University of Nevada, Reno. June 4, 1995. p. 10. Archived from the original on November 6, 2025. Retrieved November 6, 2025.
  13. ↑ Yeargain, T. (2022-10-01). "Recasting the Second Fiddle: The Need for a Clear Line of Lieutenant Gubernatorial Succession". South Carolina Law Review. 74 (1). ISSN 0038-3104.
  14. ↑ Cegavske, Barbara K. (2018). Political History of Nevada (PDF) (12th ed.). Nevada Secretary of State and the Research Division of the Legislative Counsel Bureau. p. 214. Archived (PDF) from the original on May 31, 2025. Retrieved September 28, 2025.
  15. ↑ "Maude Frazier, Nevada Teacher-Lawmaker, Dies: Officials Express Sorrow Over Miss Frazier's Death". Las Vegas Sun. June 21, 1963. p. 1. Retrieved November 13, 2025 – via NewspaperArchive via Nevada State Library, Archives and Public Records.
  16. ↑ "Maude Frazier Founder's Award" (Press release). American Red Cross. 2024-07-15. Retrieved 2025-10-06.
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