Bob Rose, former Supreme Court chief justice and lieutenant governor, dies at 82

Robert “Bob” Rose, a onetime Democratic lieutenant governor and former chief justice of the Nevada Supreme Court, has died. He was 82.

News of Rose’s death was confirmed by a Supreme Court spokesperson and in a tweet from Gov. Steve Sisolak. Details about the time, place and cause were not immediately available.

Rose served one term as lieutenant governor under Democratic Gov. Mike O’Callaghan from 1975 to 1979, before he was appointed judge for the Eighth Judicial District Court in Las Vegas in 1986 by then-Gov. Richard Bryan, a Democrat.

“I was able to appoint him as a district court judge, but got to know him quite well. [He was] just a delightful guy, very much a student of the law, very thoughtful in his approach,” Bryan told The Nevada Independent on Tuesday.

In 1988, he was elected to the Nevada Supreme Court, where he served from 1989 until 2007 after winning re-election twice. During his tenure, he helped oversee the court’s expansion from five to seven members.

“He was a valued and distinguished colleague on the court with a keen intellect and sense of justice,” a spokesperson for the Supreme Court wrote in a statement. “His dedication to our state and its citizens will be long remembered.”

In a tribute delivered in 2003, then-Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) described Rose as a “reformer” on the state’s high court — a reputation he achieved by creating the Nevada Judicial Assessment Commission to study the courts for improvement and helping chair the Committee to Establish Nevada Business Court and the Nevada Jury Improvement Commission.

“It is not always easy to live and work in the public spotlight, but he did what he felt was right,” Reid said. “He has always been a man of courage and integrity.”

Rose also had a long political history in Nevada, serving as chairman of the state Democratic Party and as Washoe County district attorney.

In 1977, as president of the state Senate, he cast a deciding vote in favor of the hotly contested Equal Rights Amendment, a measure designed to guarantee equal legal rights regardless of sex. Although the amendment did not pass in the Assembly, the move enraged Republicans less than two years out from a 1978 gubernatorial election that saw Rose lose to Republican Robert List by more than 30,000 votes. 

In a 2007 interview with the Nevada Appeal, Rose said his decision changed the course of his career.

“That was a new beginning for me,” he said. “I went back to doing what I was trained to do — practice law.”

The amendment was later ratified by the Legislature in 2017, more than 35 years after Congress’ original ratification deadline in 1979.

Rose was raised in Livingston, New Jersey, where he graduated from high school in 1957, before earning degrees at Juniata College in Pennsylvania and New York University Law School.

After getting his law degree in 1964, Rose began his road to the Nevada Supreme Court, clerking for the court for a year.

Following his tenure on the Supreme Court, Rose spent time between Nevada and another home in Hawaii with his wife Jolene. He also worked as a senior justice — a role that allows retired justices and judges to assist with cases that cannot be covered by a sitting district judge.

“He gave so much to our State throughout his life,” Gov. Steve Sisolak said of Rose in a statement on Twitter.