Flora Dungan Papers, T-117. Special Collections, UNLV Libraries, University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
The collection was acquired through Hal Erickson in October 1977, as accession 77-271.
Carol Corbett, September 1995.
This collection is open for research.
For permission to reproduce or publish from this collection, please contact the Director of Special Collections.
Flora Dungan was born Flora Turchinsky in Minnesota in 1917. Her parents were both born in Russia. She graduated from Polytechnic High School in Los Angeles in 1933, from Los Angeles Junior College in 1936, and from the University of California at Berkeley in 1938 (with Honors in Psychology). She completed a one year curriculum in Social Service at Berkeley in 1939.
After working in legal research and child welfare, Flora went into industry and accounting work during World War II. She moved to Las Vegas in 1948 and began practicing as a public accountant. She divorced L. Donald Dungan that same year, although she retained his last name professionally throughout several marriages. In 1957 she married Robert M. Stang, divorcing him in 1959.
In Las Vegas she participated in a variety of community organizations, including Business and Professional Women's Club, Zonta (a women's service club), American Association of University Women, and the Nevada Society of Public Accountants. She was also active in Democratic party politics, and served on the county and state Democratic Central Committees.
In 1962 she was elected to the State Assembly from Clark County and served in the 52nd Session in 1963 and the Tenth Special Session in 1964. In August, 1964, she and Dr. Clare Woodbury filed a lawsuit which led to a special session of the legislature in October, 1965. The special session resulted in a reapportionment of the Nevada Legislature, giving Clark County seven additional Senate and four additional Assembly seats. During this time she was married to newspaperman Ed Oncken, divorcing him in 1965.
She was again elected to the Assembly in 1967, representing Clark County District No. 4. Also in 1967, she filed a lawsuit which resulted in the enlargement of the University Board of Regents, giving Clark County a majority of five seats. She served as Assemblyman in the 1968 session and in the Thirteenth Special Session in 1968.
Flora Dungan was the first woman to serve on the Legislative Judiciary Committee, where she was a leader in fighting for prison reform and rehabilitation. As chairman of the Assembly Institutions Committee, she led the way in investigating complaints of inmate abuse at Nevada State Prison. However, she was barred from visiting the prison ostensibly because she was a woman. She also worked to expand juvenile assistance programs in the courts and to lessen the penalties for possession of marijuana.
In 1968 she ran for State Senate, but was defeated in her bid. In 1969, with her husband Ray ben David, she helped found Focus, a juvenile assistance facility which achieved national renown.
In 1972 she was elected to the University Board of Regents. Shortly after her election, she was diagnosed with cancer, and underwent successful radiation treatment while continuing to serve as regent. However, on October 25, 1973, she died in Los Angeles, California.
The Flora Dungan Papers cover her high school and university years, continue through her early community and political involvement, her professional work as a public accountant, and end with her legislative and university regent careers.
The majority of the material arrived with little organization. Several file folders contained headings; however, most did not. Much of the material was loose in the boxes. Therefore, the order of the collection has been established by the processor. All materials in Box 7 are restricted from public access. Box 8 contains mixed media.
The papers are arranged into four series reflecting the stages and careers of her life:
There are additional boxes containing confidential materials, mixed media, and oversized materials.
Twelve photographs were removed and transferred to the Flora Dungan Photo Collection 0293, in UNLV Special Collections Photo Collection.
For related topics and further information see the following collections:
Thalia Dondero Collection, MS 94-38
Maude Frazier Collection, Mss 30
The Personal & Business Series is arranged alphabetically by subject or type of material. It includes materials from Dungan's high school and university years, her business papers while practicing as a public accountant, papers pertaining to her personal finances, investments, and personal life, including her divorces, illness, and death.
The high school materials include several reports bound with red ribbon that were written and illustrated by Dungan, along with her high school yearbook and several report cards. Her university degrees and honors are included in this portion of the collection.
Included in the Investment file (box 2, folder 2) are items pertaining to her automobile, personal property taxes, and the care of her aging father. Even though these items may not have been investments, this was one instance in which the file folder was intact and labeled, so it was retained as such. The Payroll Reports file (box 2, folders 4-6) were originally contained in one Payroll file, labeled by Dungan as such. This file was segregated into three for ease of use. Folder 4 contains material that was attached to the right side of the original folder, folder 5 from the left side, and folder 6 from loose materials in the folder.
Personal papers include correspondence and materials pertaining to her divorces, illness, death, and estate. The folder containing materials pertaining to her illness and death (box 1, folder 4) was assembled from several folders that were unlabeled or labeled "Flora". In addition to correspondence, it contains materials that reflect the mundane paperwork aspects of settling her affairs after her death.
The Community Activities Series is arranged alphabetically by the name of the organization or interest and covers the period 1957-1974. Many of these organizations are those in which both she and her husband, Ray ben David, were active.
The Legislative Series spans Dungan's election campaigns and some of the issues she addressed as Assemblyman from Clark County during the 1963 Session, the 1964 Special Session, the 1967 Session, and the 1968 Special Session. It also includes her failed 1968 bid for a Senate seat. The folders are arranged alphabetically by issue or type of materials. The major issues covered in the papers include legislative reapportionment and Nevada State Prison reform.
The legislative reapportionment issue is one in which Dungan played a key role. With Dr. Clare Woodbury, she filed a lawsuit that led to a special session of the legislature in 1965. Although Dungan was not in office at this time, her files contain much material related to apportionment, including copies of court filings and her handwritten worksheets for various apportionment ratios, based on Legislative Counsel Bureau reports.
The prison reform material includes the controversy that erupted in the Assembly when she announced her intention to visit the state prison and the subsequent attempt to remove her from her committee assignment. There was extensive press coverage of this controversy, reflected in the many newspaper clippings that document her efforts at prison reform. The collection includes many letters from inmates, detailing the prison conditions and the practices under Warden Hocker. One of these files contains personnel information about the termination of a prison employee and is stored in the confidential materials box of this collection.
The Regent Series covers the period from her campaign in 1972 until her death in 1973. The material in this part of the collection consists mainly of files pertaining to University issues in which she took a particular interest. Five of these files have been placed in the confidential materials box because they pertain to employment, tenure, and competence of professors, or pertain to complaints by specific students.
In addition, material was extracted from a set of Board agenda packets spanning the period January - October, 1973. The only material retained from these files were agendas that contain notes taken by Dungan that would not otherwise appear in the Board minutes, and other papers that contain notes made by her. Several hand-annotated agendas and notes from Executive Sessions of the Board of Regents are stored in the confidential materials box because they contain materials pertaining to personnel actions.