Mountain View Casino owner John McCaw, late of Pahrump, died suddenly in Las Vegas at the Rio Hotel and Casino. He was 50 years old. (The complete obituary is on page A15.)

McCaw had been battling Hodgkin's lymphoma for a year, and his death from pneumonia was the result of complications from his chemotherapy treatments.

McCaw had just returned to Nevada from Bradenton, Fla., where he had recently relocated in order to be closer to the spring-training home of his beloved Pittsburgh Pirates baseball team.

McCaw came from Beaver, Pa., where he graduated from Beaver High School in 1974. He was a steelworker before moving to Nevada and making it his new home.

In 1981, McCaw, a Las Vegas stockbroker, became the owner of Irene's Cocktail Lounge on Spring Mountain Road in Las Vegas.

In 1987 he purchased the old Double "B" Bowling Alley in Pahrump and made it into the Mountain View Recreation Center, comprising a casino, bowling alley and restaurant.

In April 2003 the largest fire in Pahrump's history burned the structure to the ground. McCaw vowed to rebuild, and in December 2004 reopened with the largest Pahrump casino-restaurant not on the Highway 160 strip.

"I'm gonna miss him," said Rich Thurlow, former owner-editor of The Pahrump Valley Times and currrently news editor of the Kingman Daily Miner in Kingman, Ariz. "I'm gonna miss him a lot. He was a very good friend to have."

Thurlow added, "He was very, very generous with everyone. I'm sorry he's gone."

McCaw is survived by his wife, Rochelle Zeiter McCaw, whom he married in December 2000. McCaw also has two children, John, 25, and Christopher, 16, who survive him. His stepchildren include Jesse Torres, Shayna Suhmer and Adam Zeiter.

McCaw's brother, Jim McCaw, and his sister, Janet Nolder, work at Mountain View Casino and Restaurant, Jim McCaw as shift supervisor and Nolder as assistant general manager.

Services are scheduled for 2:15 p.m. today, July 19, at Palm West Mortuary, located at 1600 S. Jones in Las Vegas.

Plans for a memorial service in Pahrump will be announced at a later date.