By Perly Viasmensky
Receiving the news of the passing of someone is always sad, but some hit us more deeply in the heart. That is what happened with someone we deeply loved, Attorney Peter L. Flangas, who died on the morning of March 19th. 2021
Attorney Flangas was someone loved and respected by many; I considered him a friend and always will. Pete was one of two attorneys who first passed the Bar exam in Nevada.
In 1958, he opened the Flangas Law Firm in downtown Las Vegas and many of the best attorneys in town spent time in his offices.
Definitely, he was a character; he always called things as he saw them and told people off if he felt like it, but everybody loved him the way he was. Pete Flangas never took nonsense from anyone.
I still remember when he was running for the District Court judgeship, I called him to offer him my help in his campaign. He answered the phone and told me: “Call me back when you learn to speak English and without an accent.” And he hung up on me.
I called him back and didn’t even give him a chance to say anything. I told him: “How dare you hang up the phone on me, so rudely? Don’t
forget, you also have an accent, a Greek accent, and it is worse than my accent, and now I am not giving you my vote.”
That was the beginning of a beautiful friendship. I would like to remember Pete as he always was.
There was another time when he represented a client in City Court. The City attorney asked his client to go with her (as they always try to
negotiate a deal). Pete started following them to the next room and the City attorney told him: “No, you wait here; I want to talk to your
attorney first.” Oh boy, he got upset, it didn’t take much for him to get upset when he needed to and jump on the woman. “I am the attorney; I am Peter Flangas.”
Several times I stopped by his office and stood by the door to hear him say: “What do you want?” I remember telling him, “Nothing, I just
came to give you a hug.” And he always shared a warm hug with me.
He always stood next and behind his friends without hesitation. Judge Gerald Bongiovanni is a good example of that.
His funeral services will be in Salt Lake City, Utah and I deeply regret not being able to pay my last respects to someone so dear to me.
A Celebration of Life will take place in Las Vegas in the near future for his friends, clients and employees to remember this wonderful man.
My deepest condolences to his wife Wanda, his children Leo, Jason and Vanessa; his grandchildren, the rest of his family and his circle of
friends who will miss him.
Dear Pete, you are gone, but you will never be forgotten.
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Perly Viasmensky is the General Manager of the Las Vegas Tribune. She writes a weekly column in this newspaper. To contact Perly Viasmensky, email her at pviasmensky@lasvegastribune.co
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