UNLV history professor Hal Rothman is shown in his office on May 17, 2005. Rothman died Sunday night at the age of 48. Rothman came to UNLV as an assistant professor in 1992 and served as the department's chairman from 2002 to 2005. Photo by Gary Thompson.

Hal Rothman, the oft-quoted expert on all things Las Vegas, died Sunday after a yearlong battle with Lou Gehrig's disease. He was 48.

Rothman, who hosted a radio show, wrote a column in the Las Vegas Sun and authored several books, was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, in December 2005.

The University of Nevada, Las Vegas hired Rothman as a history professor in 1992, when the Strip was leading the valley headlong into a boom that was to last into the next decade. It provided Rothman with his topic of choice: "Neon Metropolis: How Las Vegas Started the Twenty-First Century," as his 2002 book was titled.

Rothman's sharp mind and quick wit made him the media's choice for intelligent perspective on the city. He was quoted in or appeared on almost every national news outlet in the country, including The New York Times, Newsweek magazine, ABC World News Tonight, The Wall Street Journal, the CBS Evening News, CNN and National Public Radio.

"I'm on television more than anybody who isn't a member of the Screen Actors Guild," Rothman joked to the Review-Journal in 2003.

UNLV history professor Andy Kirk said his former colleague "embraced the role of spokesman for Vegas like few people have. He was always willing to express his thoughts on Vegas ... and found a national audience."

"He had just an amazing passion and love for history that he loved sharing with the public," Kirk said.

Rothman began as an assistant professor of history at UNLV and served as the department's chairman from 2002 to 2005. Former UNLV President Carol Harter named him the university's 14th distinguished professor in May.

"He's an irreplaceable type of person," Harter said. "He's a brilliant man who cared deeply about his family and university. He will be sorely, sorely missed."

Though he became known worldwide as the preeminent historian of modern Las Vegas, his areas of expertise also included environmental history and the history of the American West.

"He was the leading scholar on the national parks," Kirk said.

Rothman didn't move to Las Vegas already in love with the city, his wife, Lauralee Rothman, said. But through talking to people and collecting the stories of Las Vegans, he came to love the "little desert town that always continues to reinvent itself," she said.

"In Las Vegas, you can pick your fantasy," Rothman wrote in an Oct. 29 op-ed piece in the Los Angeles Times. "In the rest of America, you don't always get to pick."

That piece and another column that ran in the Sun the same day marked the last time Rothman was published, as his illness prevented him from moving and speaking.

Rothman's diagnosis in 2005 after returning from a trip to Europe was surprising to people who knew of his energy and athleticism. He was an avid bicyclist and loved watching sports.

"He was one of the most amazingly energetic people I've ever known," UNLV history professor Andy Fry said.

But the way Rothman handled his diagnosis, which carries a virtual death sentence, did not surprise people.

"Hal's response (to his diagnosis) was sort of typically Hal: 'If anybody can get over this, I can,'" Fry said. "I thought that he'd handled this with an incredible amount of courage and grace."

Barbara Wallace, who also teaches history at UNLV, said that when she saw Rothman on campus after he was diagnosed, he always had a smile on his face.

"I never saw him get down," she said. "I would think, 'Why would you be in a good mood right now? You could easily just be in a bad mood right now.' But he was always like that. He was going to go down fighting."

"He met any challenge," Lauralee Rothman said, "and even though Hal maybe seemed like he was tough on the outside ... he was a big softie."

A fundraiser Saturday to help pay for Rothman's medical expenses drew a large and eclectic turnout, friends said.

"The community has been absolutely amazing," Lauralee Rothman said. "It's really wonderful to see how many lives Hal touched and how many lives have touched ours."

Friends said he would be remembered for his contributions to Las Vegas, to history and to his students.

"History is a profession that attracts storytellers," Fry said, "and he was a particularly good one."

In addition to his wife, Rothman is survived by their two children, Talia and Brent.

Services, which are open to the public, will be at 3 p.m. Wednesday at Palm Mortuary, 7600 S. Eastern Ave, near Warm Springs Road. Burial will follow at King David Cemetery at 2697 Eldorado Lane, near Eastern and Warm Springs.

Donations in Rothman's memory may be made to the ALS Society of Nevada.