Jim Cashman Jr. – Pacemakers

Pacemakers: Jim Cashman Jr.

It’s easy to look back over the history of Cashman Equipment and simply see the course of the company as a whole. However, those names on the page and a list of accomplishments don’t tell the whole story. While our company history was being made, what were people saying? Did Jim Cashman Jr.’s contemporaries see him the way we do? Happily, it appears we can say yes to that as evidenced by the article below from the 1967 Pacemakers’ Industrial Outlook article by Del Wade.

Businessman, civic leader, sportsman, and pilot are all facets of this man’s profile, but more than that, he is also a man of determination.

All of these fit Jim Cashman, Jr. of Las Vegas, whose activities range from operating the widespread Cashman Enterprises to promoting industrial growth in southern Nevada, to serving on the Nevada State Planning Board, and the Governor’s Higher Education Committee, to hunting polar bear in the Arctic, to logging more than 4,000 hours flying time as a private pilot…

…Jim, Jr. foresees a great potential for the entire state [of Nevada]. He points out the accessibility in both northern and southern Nevada to large metropolitan markets which are conducive to attracting people and industry to the state. At the same time he recognizes that Nevada’s prime business is tourism and the entertainment industry which includes gaming.

Jim is hopeful of diversification in the state’s economy, and says, “We are continuing to encourage and attract certain selective types of industry, non-monopolistic and non-polluting kinds of business which will result in a balance of our economy.” The state’s tax shelter advantages, together with its freeport law, offer definite incentives for industry … to locate here.”

Early retirements as well as greater longevity are causing people to seek out locations where life offers some of nature’s luxuries and southern Nevada’s warm climate lends itself to making it an ideal retirement and health resort.

Northern Nevada, he says, is “just beginning to experience some of the things we have had in the South and I see a great future, too, for the North as well as the South. Firms such as Sea and Ski in Reno are the kind of business that recognize the advantages offered here.

Jim’s interest in attracting industry to the state is evidenced by his position as a trustee of the Southern Nevada Industrial Foundation, a position to which he was elected in 1962.

Jim heads up Cashman Enterprises, which consist of Cashman Cadillac, Inc., Cashman GMC Truck, Cashman Leasing Corp. and Cashman Equipment Co. of Las Vegas, Reno, and Elko, and the James Cashman Co. real estate holding company…

…Who will take over when Jim retires? He has two sons and two nephews, all of whom he hopes will take an interest in the business. Jim’s eldest son already has a knowledge of the business, having worked in it during school vacations. Will he start out as a vice president after graduating next year? “No,” says Jim, “he’ll come up through the ranks the hard way, just as I did – just as Big Jim would have wanted it.” Jim Jr. is a man of determination.