Robert E. Rose was a public figure in Nevada during a career spanning several decades. A Democrat, he was the chairman of the state's chapter of the party.
Rose would become Nevada's second-highest government official. That would eventually be followed by him becoming the top judge in Nevada before calling it a career. So it seems that Rose's earthly work is now complete.
Passed away on Valentine's Day of 2022
Robert E. Rose has died, reports the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Rose was the fifth former lieutenant governor of Nevada to pass away in as many years.
Following Edward Fike, Paul Laxalt, Bob Cashell, and Harry Reid. Laxalt, who also served as governor, and Reid were later elected to the United States Senate. Reid would become its majority leader.
The Nevada Independent indicates that a cause of death was not made immediately clear. Rose had reportedly undergone a recent surgery in Los Angeles, California, before returning to Nevada.
Rose became lieutenant governor in 1975. His tenure in the office included a tense period in the state regarding the Equal Rights Amendment. Like others in the United States, the amendment needed two-thirds of state legislatures to take effect. Nevada's upper legislative house, the Senate, would be deadlocked in a tie.
As lieutenant governor, Rose cast the deciding vote in favor of ratification.
The Nevada Assembly would not vote in favor of ratification at the time, rendering the Senate's support moot. But even so, Rose's move would garner him significant attention. Eventually, both houses of the Nevada Legislature would vote to ratify to Equal Rights Amendment in 2017.
In 1978, Rose was the Democratic nominee for governor of Nevada. However, he would lose in a rout to the Republican nominee, State Attorney General Robert List. Rose managed to win only a single county in the state, Storey County.
List's successor as governor was Richard Bryan, later chairman of the Ethics Committee in the U.S.
Senate. While still governor, Bryan appointed Rose as a state district court judge. His jurisdiction would be Clark County, which includes Las Vegas.
In 1988, he was elected as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of Nevada. Rose would go on to be elected to the court three more times. In 2006, he became its chief justice. Rose retired the following year.
Had been a clerk for the Supreme Court of Nevada many years before
Robert E. Rose was a native of Orange, New Jersey, not far from Newark. He would graduate from high school in nearby Livingston. After further education in Pennsylvania and New York, he would settle in Nevada.
Shortly after arriving, he began clerking for the Supreme Court that he would later be the chief justice of. Along the way, he'd also serve as district attorney of Washoe County, the location of Reno.
