A community remembers Mike McGinness’ legacy

A familiar Irish blessing summarized Sunday’s celebration of life for Fallon native and son Mike McGinness.

McGinness was a successful businessman, the Voice of the Greenwave through his broadcasts of Churchill County High School athletics, and one of the most respected state legislators.

“May the hand of a friend always be near you,” the blessing says, and McGinness had many friends who loved and respected him.

Born with the given name of Joseph Marvin “Mike” McGinness on April 12, 1947, the Nevada native died Feb. 9 after a lengthy illness. The celebration of life at the Churchill Arts Center that attracted many friends from Churchill County and beyond including retired and current legislators and a congressman brought a combination of tears, smiles and laughs for a man who impacted the lives of thousands.

While residents in the Lahontan Valley knew him as the voice of Greenwave athletics for several decades, his distinct voice and delivery was heard during interviews of local and statewide guests and as one of the hosts of the morning program, Trading Post, where residents pitched their “for sale” items.

The Rev. Dawn Blundell, Senior Pastor of Epworth United Methodist Church, guided the celebration of life with her own observations and by introducing McGinness’ friends who included Mayor Ken Tedford, his oldest son Ryan, brother-in-law and fellow broadcaster Lynn Pearce, former Nevada Department of Wildlife spokesman Dave Rice and Congressman Mark Amodei.

Ryan McGinness said it best when discussing his father.

“My dad loved this town and his native rural Nevada. He was a fourth-generation Nevadan, Ryan said.

Mike McGinness excelled in his craft, having been named to the Nevada Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame and the Greenwave Hall of Fame in 2019.

A LOVE FOR RURAL NEVADA

Born in Fallon to a family who lived in Schurz because of his father’s employment with the Nevada Department of Transportation, relocated to Fallon when it was time for Mike to attend high school.

Relocating to Fallon was only the second major decision that would affect the young teenager. In 1956, Les and Betty Pearce moved to Fallon from Humboldt County to start a new radio station. Both Mike and his wife, Deeana, met in high school and the romance began, spanning decades that included a marriage after they both graduated from the University of Nevada, Reno to later guiding the operations of KVLV, first as an AM radio station and then adding the FM channel years after.

Ryan, though, said his father attained a degree in education and was prepared to teach Spanish.

“He discovered teaching wasn’t his vocation. Fallon was a one-Spanish teacher town,” Ryan said.

Instead, Mike McGinness decided he work at his in-laws’ radio station and devote his life to public service. Ryan said his father became a familiar voice and familiar face to the small community known for its agriculture and a small naval air station southeast of the county seat.

“My grandfather (Les) brought him into the Kiwanis,” Ryan said, expanding on the story how his father became the pancake flipper for Labor Day breakfasts and other events.

In fact, Ryan said father became an excellent cook. When it was taco night at the McGinness’ household, the leftover tacos became burritos for their school lunches.

Whether it was at home or at a friend’s house, he said Mike would cook dinner and afterward, wash and dry the dishes and clean the kitchen.

Yet, the one thing Ryan stressed was his parents’ equal partnership at home and at the radio station.

“They played to their strengths,” he said.

McGinness first entered politics by becoming a Churchill County School Board member. When he ran for state Assembly and Senate, Ryan said his father would drive to Carson City early in the morning and then return home later in the day so he could be home with his family.

“He was incredibly patient,” Ryan said. “He was the permanent good cop in our family.”

Mike McGinness served a term on the school board and was the president from 1984-1988 before serving in the Assembly from 1989-1992 and then the state senate until 2012. During his final year, McGinness succeeded William Raggio as the minority leader.

Dave Rice, left, retired spokesman for the Nevada Department of Wildlife, conducts a radio program with Mike McGinness decades ago. KVLV photo

Ryan also remembers helping his father with the 1988 campaign, crisscrossing Nevada for three weeks. Traveling, though, was in the McGinness family blood whether it was for campaigns or a family vacation. Ryan then turned to the family’s last vacation in 2017 when his father was struggling with his debilitating illness.

“In 2017, we embarked on what would be my dad’s last family vacation,” Ryan said.

So, his mother, younger brother Brett and sister Shannon flew to Ireland and then used the rest of the time for a driving tour around the Emerald Isle.

“We visited McGinness Castle,” Ryan said, adding his father had a great sense of humor and loved to laugh.

FALLON WAS HOME

McGinness was president of the Fallon Kiwanis Club, Churchill County Ducks Unlimited, past president of Nevada State Fair Board of Directors, past chairman Churchill County Parks and Recreation Commission, past chairman of Churchill County School Board, 1986 Citizen of the Year by the Fallon Board of Realtors and Nevada Association of Realtors in 1987, Churchill Arts Advisory Committee, Churchill Millennium Committee and past chairman Churchill County Republican Central Committee.

In 2017, McGinness was inducted into the Senate Hall of Fame for his distinguished service as a well-respected legislator and for reaching across the aisle.

In addition to his work for the community and state, he also enlisted in the Nevada Air Guard in 1969 and served for six years, attaining the rank of staff sergeant. He was also an airman of the year.

“In 1986, Mike and Dee, and a classmate shared a dream with Valerie Serpa to bring the arts to Churchill County,” Tedford said.

Through the tenacity of the McGinness family, their friends and the Fallon community, Tedford said the aim was to make the former Oats Park school the home and crown jewel of the arts in Churchill County.

“This was one of Mike’s many impacts he made for the county,” Tedford said.

Over the years, the late Serpa and her husband Kirk Robertson strived to make Fallon the center of arts in Northern Nevada.

Over the years, the inside of the former school was transformed into the “place to be” for a performance or lecture. High school and college graduations have been held in the theater as well as celebrations of life including the one for McGinness.

Yet, Tedford said McGinness helped with the creation of Laura Mills Park in west Fallon, increased youth supports and advocated the need for a convention center. Tedford said McGinness was dignified, humbled … a critical thinker.

“While this building is the crown jewel of arts in rural Nevada and the city of Fallon, it is just one example of Mike’s impact at home,” Tedford said. “For the past 50 years of his leadership, activism, advocacy and determination, we have seen significant improvement for every citizen of our community,” Tedford said. “Mike’s leadership has changed our lives.”

When leadership was needed for a group or organization, Tedford said McGinness stepped up.

THE MAN BEHIND THE MICROPHONE

While Tedford noted McGinness’ devotion to improving the community, the mayor also saw another side to his longtime friend — that of a newscaster and sportscaster.

“He would switch hats,” Tedford said. “Delivering breaking news, the water report or a public service message. He would then introduce his favorite western song.”

Tedford said McGinness was the master of multitasking, never losing focus.

In the mid-to-late 1970s and early 80s, Tedford assisted McGinness on the play-by-play sportscasts of Greenwave football and basketball and sometimes the spring sports.

For the next decade, the McGinness and Tedford duo traveled the roads of rural Nevada to announce Greenwave sports to a devoted audience. Broadcasting game was primitive compared to today’s wireless networks. They didn’t have cellphones, so the broadcasting duo had to rely on telephone jacks.

During their seasons together, Tedford said one scene on the court was described as “helter skelter,” a reference to a book describing the gruesome Manson family murders of the late 1960s and early 1970s.

“We were getting beat by 30, 40 points, and it was hard to call,” Tedford said of the game against a larger opponent.

Tedford explained what the book was about, and from that game forward, McGinness and Tedford would also review books over a span of several games. Tedford said he loved discussing the latest Robert Ludlum books, the creator of Jason Bourne from the original The Bourne Trilogy series.

The announcers kept their broadcast focused with some humor.

“Mike would ask, what can we expect tonight?”

Tedford replied, “They have 16 cheerleaders, and we have four.”

During one broadcast, Tedford reported a halftime score of a Nevada-UNLV basketball game. McGinness quizzed his partner because there was no means of receiving a score.

“We had no cellphone at the time,” Tedford said. “I made up the score. No one was going to check the halftime score.”

Another longtime friend, Dave Rice, added another dimension to McGinness. Rice, the longtime voice and education office of the Nevada Department of Fish and Game, — the Nevada Division of Wildlife — reflected on his friendship with McGinness that began in the early 1970s with a radio program.

Rice said McGinness was “such a help” to his department by providing a venue for him to record his show at KVLV for a statewide audience.

“I established the information and education program branch out of Fallon,” Rice said. “Mike was such a big help.”

Rice said the program’s name was “On the Wild Side of Life” and played on radio stations everywhere for 45 years. Rice said his bosses decided four decades was enough years to move on.

During his comments, Rice said he asked Mike to make him a star and didn’t know if it could occur on radio. It did with hundreds of programs recorded and then presented to a Nevada audience.

The professional relationship grew into a close friendship. Rice said more than 40 years ago, Dee McGinness asked him for information on camping near the Oregon coast. Rice chuckled, saying the young McGinness couple spent some of their honeymoon camping. Rice and his wife also had a son the same age of Ryan, and over the years the two families spent their vacations in the wilderness, enjoying the solitude the fishing.

Both men enjoyed hunting and explored Nevada’s backroads. On a hunting trip north of Austin on a dusty road, Rice praised his friend’s intuition. As they looked across the flat, broad area, McGinness said he thought he saw a perfect place for finding deer.

“I really like to get out and hunt that,” Rice repeated McGinness’ statement.

McGinness was right. Rice said his friend shot a four-point buck, and soon afterward, they were back in camp.

Lynn Pearce, Mike’s brother-in-law, had also hunted together. As Pearce put it, McGinness taught him how to hunt from a truck’s warm cab.

“We would jump out (of the cab), shoot and grab the ducks and jump back into the cap,” Pearce recalled.

In addition to duck hunting, Pearce said he also remembers the times they hunted for deer near the Solver Creek Ranch north of Austin. Yet, it was the interaction with the wife of the ranch owner.

“She invited us because we were soaking wet that day,” Pearce said. “She asked if we wanted 7-UP.”

Pearce said she filled a glass to the top with whiskey and then waved a few drops of 7-UP on top of the glass.

Not only did Pearce and his brother-in-law prowl the Nevada hills, they attended many broadcaster conferences including those in Las Vegas and one in New Orleans.

“We had a great time,” Pearce said.

FRIENDS FROM THE LEGISLATURE

Amodei, who has served as Nevada’s District 2 Congressman for more than a decade, sat side-by-side with McGinness when they were in the Nevada senate. Amodei interspersed his comments with humor and the seriousness of knowing his friend.

“Everyone has a style,” Amodei said. “One word you don't hear much is leadership.”

Amodei said McGinness was well respected and received support.

During their time in the Legislature, Amodei said he learned more about McGinness and his. background, especially when they had hours on the road together around Nevada.

“He gave so much of himself,” Amodei said, adding McGinness was special to this community, other places in Nevada and to that castle in Ireland.

Speaking without notes, Amodei said McGinness didn’t say much, but when he did, others listened.

Other lawmakers who spoke at or before the celebration of life offered kind words for the McGinness family.

For state senator James Settelmeyer of Douglas County called McGinness “the salt of the earth.”

Settelmeyer said his friend was determined to do his best to improve Nevada education.

“I’d go over to Churchill County for the Lincoln Day dinner, other events or a parade. Occasionally, I would have some cattle business, and then come see him.

“I’d stop by the radio station and find him fixing a tape” Settelmeyer said. “People like Mike were not about politics. They wanted to do what was best.”

Settelmeyer said McGinness was concerned about education and agriculture. McGinness was the minority floor leader in 2011, and his assistant was Barbara Cegavske, who would later become the state’s secretary of state. Settelmeyer was the minority whip.

John Oceguera, who grew up in Fallon but moved to Las Vegas where he was a firefighter, represented Clark County District 16 in the Nevada Assembly from 2001 to 2013. He was elected speaker of the Assembly in 2011.

“When I was in school (in Fallon), he (McGinness) was announcing the sports,” Oceguera said. “I remember KVLV, the broadcasting box at the old high school.”

As each man’s career progressed, they found each other in the Legislature.

“He was the minority leader, I was the speaker. We agreed on issues on Fallon, and Mike was always calm and cool,” he said.

Oceguera said he remembers growing up, and Mike was a staple of the Trading Post.

“That was the only radio station around,” Oceguera laughed. “It was country AM and FM.”

Oceguera said it was an honor to serve with McGinness.

Cegavske considers McGinness a friend and a lawmaker who wanted to do his best, not only for his constituents and his friends. State Sen. Minority Leader Robin Titus knew McGinness well.

“Senator McGinness was not only a tireless advocate for his constituents, but actually a voice of reason, compassion, and integrity in all matters,” she emotionally said when announcing his death to the senate. “It wasn't just his work that defined who he was, it was his character. He was known for listening with patience and speaking with honesty, his ability to bring people together, to bridge divides and put the needs of Nevadans first.”

ALL FOR FALLON

Tedford said before the celebration of life the community knew and liked McGinness.

“It was very easy to deal with Mike. When we had to, it was a phone call,” Tedford said.

Other adjectives describing McGinness were super helpful, smart, brilliant.

“He was a unique guy and I will really miss him,” Tedford said. “It will be sad not to see him again (and) not to have that relationship anymore. I just thought he was such a genuine guy, humble.”