Rest In Peace
former Assemblyman Bob Price. One of my fondest memories of my
time down as an intern at the Legislature 20 years ago was hanging
out with him. In a building where levity is not always found,
his office was adorned with Alien memorabilia and in his seat
in the Assembly Chamber sat an inflatable Alien doll much to the
chagrin of then Speaker Joe Dini. He loved his state. He loved
its people. In his heyday, as chair of the Assembly Taxation Committee
he was a champion of the little guy and the disadvantaged and
was fearless in taking on the state’s powerful special interests.
He always made time for people no matter who they were or where
they came from. His smile was infectious. His widow Nancy, who
is special in her own right, was the love of his life and was
entirely devoted to him. I wish her and the rest of their family
my sincere condolences. I am confident I join a very long line
of Nevadans who loved him and will miss him greatly. — WILLIAM
PUCHERT, RENO
I first became
aware of Bob Price by name during his first term as an Assemblyman
(in 1975). He would amuse us with his guitar playing. Of course,
I had become somewhat acquainted with him as a good person during
the time we were attempting to integrate the building trades unions
in the late sixties. He assisted me in integrating the Electrical
Union 357. He became the business manager of the local. It was
Bob who gave me the idea that the base point for integration of
the building and trades unions required getting enough minority
members to affect union elections.
We served
on a Nuclear Waste Committee which had been put together by the
National Council of State Legislatures. We went on a fact-finding
trip to visit a Duke Power Plant radiation site in Oak Ridge,
Tennessee. A young white lady was driving us. So I took a seat
on the passenger side up front. In the kindest way possbile, Bob
reminded me that I was not in Nevada, but in the South.
Bob said “Joe, let me sit up front. I would like to take
some pictures.”
I had been
to Memphis, Tennessee, during the Carter presidential re-election
campaign and experienced the bigotry of the local white populace
at that time. I was driving a group of white Nevadans to diner
when a white fellow attempted to ram my car. As I recalled, I
did not make eye contact with the guy. This may have further pissed
him off because I did not seem to respond to his invective by
showing fear but kept on driving. I am not sure whether Bob Price
was in the car. I know that (Las Vegan) Harriet Trudell was inside
along with about five other white persons.
Bob was much more aware than I of the danger (the environment)
posed to me and the group with us had I stayed in the front seat
of a van being driven by a white lady in rural Tennessee. Knowing
Bob at the time to be of southern birth, I could not think of
his action being other than magnanimous. We became true friends;
a Southern Black boy from Mounds, Louisiana, and a white guitar
picker from Florida. – SEN.
JOSEPH M. NEAL, JR., D-NORTH LAS VEGAS (Ret.)
