A.C.R. 35


Assembly Concurrent Resolution No. 35--Assemblymen 
    Dini, Allard, Anderson, Arberry, Bache, Batten, 
    Bennett, Braunlin, Brower, Buckley, Carpenter, 
    Chowning, Close, de Braga, Ernaut, Evans, Fettic, 
    Freeman, Giunchigliani, Goldwater, Harrington, 
    Hettrick, Humke, Krenzer, Lambert, Manendo, 
    Marvel, Monaghan, Neighbors, Nolan, Ohrenschall, 
    Perkins, Price, Sandoval, Schneider, Segerblom, 
    Spitler, Steel, Stroth, Tiffany, Tripple and 
    Williams

                   May 18, 1995
                 _____________

                 Read and adopted


SUMMARY--Memorializes Russell W. McDonald. 
          (BDR R-1090)




EXPLANATION--Matter in italics is new; matter in bra
ckets [ ] is material to be omitted.

ASSEMBLY CONCURRENT RESOLUTION--Memorializing former Legislative 
        Counsel Russell W. McDonald.


  WHEREAS, The members of this session note with 
sadness the passing of Russell West McDonald, who served our 
legislature and the people of this state for so long as 
Legislative Counsel and in other public offices; and
  WHEREAS, Russ McDonald was a native Nevadan, 
born October 8, 1917, in Reno to Thomas M. and Juanita West 
McDonald; and
  WHEREAS, After beginning his education at the 
University of Nevada and spending 2 years at Oxford 
University as a Rhodes Scholar, he entered the United States 
Navy to serve during World War II and attained the rank of 
Lieutenant Commander; and
  WHEREAS, He completed his education at 
Stanford University School of Law after the war and was 
admitted to the State Bar of Nevada; and
  WHEREAS, He served as Assistant City Attorney 
of Reno and codified the ordinances of Washoe County and the 
cities of Reno, Sparks, Winnemucca and Lovelock; and
  WHEREAS, He was appointed in 1951 as Director 
of the Statute Revision Commission which was composed of the 
Justices of the Supreme Court and charged with revising the 
statutes of the state; and
  WHEREAS, Under the supervision of the 
justices, he took the mass of statutes which had accumulated 
over 90 years without being authoritatively harmonized and 
weeded out the inconsistencies, producing for enactment by 
the legislature in 1957 the Nevada Revised Statutes, which 
comprised "all laws of a general, public and permanent 
nature" as of January 21, 1957; and
  WHEREAS, During the progress of that work and 
after its completion, he drafted, with the aid of a small 
staff of lawyers, all bills and resolutions and any 
amendments thereto introduced in the Nevada Legislature, so 
the coherence of the Nevada Revised Statutes could be 
preserved; and
  WHEREAS, In 1963, when the responsibility for 
this latter work was transferred from the judicial to the 
legislative department and the Legislative Counsel Bureau 
was created, he became the Legislative Counsel and the 
Director of the Legislative Counsel Bureau; and
  WHEREAS, Upon completion of the revision of 
the statutes, he and his staff began digesting all of the 
opinions of the Supreme Court to prepare annotations to the 
Nevada Revised Statutes and a topical digest of the Nevada 
Reports, a task initially completed around 1965 and 
continuing in the annotations now integrated with the 
statutes as a responsibility of the Legislative Counsel; and
  WHEREAS, He served in these capacities until 
1971, when he retired at the end of the legislative session 
from state service and returned to local governmental 
service, serving as Washoe County Manager until 1976; and
  WHEREAS, Throughout and after this long 
career, he made time for voluntary public service as a 
member of the State Welfare Board and the Board of Bar 
Examiners, a trustee of the Nevada Historical Society and a 
member of the successor board of museums and history; and
  WHEREAS, He had a strong social side as well, 
attested by his many friends and his affiliation with the 
Free and Accepted Masons, the Order of Nobles of the Mystic 
Shrine, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and the 
Independent Order of Odd Fellows; now, therefore, be it
  RESOLVED BY THE ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF NEVADA, THE 
SENATE CONCURRING, That the members of the 68th 
session of the Nevada Legislature offer their condolences to 
the family and friends of Russell W. McDonald; and be it 
further
  RESOLVED, That his true monument is before us 
every day in the form of the Nevada Revised Statutes that he 
shaped and that we amend in every bill for a general law; 
and be it further
  RESOLVED, That the Chief Clerk of the Assembly 
prepare and transmit a copy of this resolution to his widow, 
Betty, his son Michael, and his daughters Stephanie Merchant 
and Kitty Downs.

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