HENRY CONVERSANO

CONVERSANO--Henry

"Bud," Designer, a resident of Lafayette, CA formally of Oakland, CA and the Borough of Queens in New York City passed away on September 4, 2018 at the age of 86 years old. Henry grew up in Queens, New York and went to Flushing High School. He attended Pratt University and majored in Industrial Design focusing on Automoblie Design. After graduation Henry went to Detroit and worked for General Motors Company. It was not long until Henry moved to California to become a furniture designer. Henry accompanied an Interior Designer to a meeting with Bill Harrah. The meeting was a disaster and Bill Harrah turned to Henry and asked him, if he could do any better than what he was just shown. He could and he did. This started the long design career of Henry Conversano. He was president for over 30 years of Henry Conversano and Associates. Henry was the Designer of the Modern-Day Casino. He designed casinos for all of the great Casino Mavericks including Stephen Wynn, William Harrah, Sol Kerzner, Kirk Kerkorian. Hugh Hefner and Donald Trump. Henry was the genius who created the majority of the designs for Harrahs Lake Tahoe, Golden Nugget (Las Vegas and Atlantic City) Sun City South Africa, The Mirage Las Vegas the MGM Las Vegas and many more. Henry truly believed that each design he created was theatrical. He worked on Donald Trump's casino Trump Plaza in Atlantic City and designed his current residence at Trump Tower in New York. Henry was a complete designer. He could design anything from Architecture to Furniture. Henry was also a great artist. Henry assisted with Give Kids the World in Florida. He loved what Henri Landwirth was doing for the terminally ill children. Henry designed several structures in the Village. For all of his great talent, Henry was respectful to all designers. He mentored his son Brad as an Interior Designer and his late son Todd an Architect. He was also the mentor to two of the current Casino Architects Brad Friedmutter and Paul Steelman. When Henry was asked to give a lecture he would simply say to all of the young people in the audience to "just design." Henry will be sadly missed by his wife Mary, his sons Brad and Ryan and his four grandchildren. Henry was predeceased by his father William Michael Conversano, mother Alyce Katherine Englemann, first wife Roberta Goldstein and his son Todd.