A native of San Francisco, Donald L.
Grunsky graduated from UC Berkeley with a bachelor's degree
in 1936 and a law degree from Boalt Hall in 1939. He practiced
law for two years in the Bay Area before entering the
U.S. Navy for service in World War II. After being released
from the service as a Lieutenant Commander in 1945, Grunsky
founded Grunsky, Ebey, Farrar & Howell, which he built
into one of the largest and highly respected law firms
in the Central Coast counties.
He was first elected to the Legislature as an assemblyman
in 1946, receiving both the Republican and Democratic
nominations under cross-filing in spite of opposition.
He was thereafter unopposed for reelection to the Assembly
in 1948 and 1950. In, 1952, he was elected to the Senate,
being the only senator in the history of the State elected
to the Senate for the first time without opposition. With
the abolition of cross-filing, Grunsky had Democratic
opposition for reelection in 1956 and again in 1960, but
was reelected each time at the General Election with an
overwhelming majority. In the 1964 election, he was the
only senator in the State who was unopposed for reelection,
receiving the nominations of both parties in the primary.
He also ran unopposed for reelection in 1968.
Grunsky's hardest campaign was in 1966, following Senate
reapportionment, when he was successful in a vigorous
campaign for reelection, winning over two other popular
incumbent senators, namely Senator Vernon Sturgeon, then
representing San Luis Obispo County, and Senator Fred
Farr, then representing Monterey County. He never lost
an election.
By 1976, Senator Grunsky's district encompassed 9,000
square miles and a half-million people in Santa Cruz,
San Benito, Monterey, and San Luis Obispo Counties. As
a result of reapportionment, the new district eliminated
San Benito County and added the northern part of Santa
Barbara County, including a portion of the City of Santa
Maria.
Although he was often a member of the minority party,
Senator Grunsky, by reason of his seniority and the respect
of his colleagues in Sacramento, achieved membership on
some of the most important and prestigious Senate committees.
He chaired seven separate Senate committees during his
legislative career. At the end he was chair of the Senate
Finance and Judiciary Committees and a member of the Senate
Education Committee, and the Senate Governmental Organization
Committee. Grunsky also served as Chairman of the Joint
Legislative Budget Committee, and was a member of the
Joint legislative Committee on Legislative Ethics. In
addition to his above assignments, Senator Grunsky was,
until he resigned in anticipation of his retirement, Chairman
of the Joint Legislative Committee for Revision of the
Penal Code.
In his last year Senator Grunsky was honored for the third
time in a two year period when he was selected by the
Legislative Bird Watchers, Inc., a volunteer group of
citizens dedicated to keeping track of legislators' voting
patterns in legislative committees, as the "most
outstanding legislator in Sacramento" during the
1973 Session of the Legislature. In 1972, that same group
reported that Grunsky was one of the few legislators who
had a "100% positive voting record" on environmental
issues. |
His effectiveness
in the State Senate was further attested to in a May 1973
article in the Los Angeles Times entitled "The Elite
of the Elect" in which he was rated by his colleagues
in both the houses of Legislature as being the most effective
Republican senator in the Senate.
During his years in the Legislature, he not only voted
on literally tens of thousands of important and often
controversial pieces of legislation, but was the principal
author of hundreds of important bills, a number of which
have been recognized as landmarks in the field of legislation.
Grunsky introduced legislation in his first Session as
a young assemblyman to regulate "loan sharks"
who had been exploiting necessitous borrowers. This was
followed by important legislation in every ensuing Session
in such areas as education, elimination of discrimination
on the basis of sex, insurance rate regulations, reorganization
of the court system, consumer protection, retirement benefits
for public employees, and the Davis-Grunsky Act of 1957
which had the broad objective of furthering the development
and conservation of water resources throughout the State.
That act was of particular interest in making possible
the Newell Creek project in Santa Cruz County, Nacimiento
Lake in Monterey County, and Lopez Lake in San Luis Obispo
County. As a Senate leader in the field of education,
Grunsky was a principal architect in the Senate of California
Master Plan for Higher Education and provided strong leadership
in the areas of school finances, vocational and cooperative
education, teacher credentialing, and compensatory and
pre-school education. One of his most widely known bills
was the Family Law Act of 1969, which he first started
working on in 1966 as the Senate member of Governor Pat
Brown's Commission on the Family.
In the field of environment and conservation, Grunsky
authored bills protecting Monterey Bay and the Coastline
from offshore oil drilling and Senate Bill 100, which
served as a model in drafting the Coastline Initiative
on the November 1972 ballot. He has also co-authored legislation
to protect wild rivers from needless destruction and was
a leader in providing for public acquisition and development
of beach and park areas. One of his last acts was successfully
obtaining legislation which opened up meetings of the
Legislature to the public.
Don Grunsky served under five governors and completed
30 years of legislative service in 1976. In retiring Senator
Grunsky said "I know I'm going to miss the challenges
and satisfaction of being directly involved as an elected
representative of the people in helping make our form
of government work. However, the increasing personal sacrifices
demanded of elected public officials in recent years has
made it more difficult for me to continue in my traditional
role as a private citizen legislator. As I have always
stated, I would never be a full-time politician. Therefore,
I am retiring from the Legislature to devote more time
to my personal interests and private law practice, and
hope to continue to serve the public in less demanding
ways."
During his entire political career, Grunsky carried on
an active law practice and personally tried over 100 jury
trials, winning almost all of them. His success as a trial
attorney led to his law firm growing into one of the largest
in the California Central Coast. Senator Grunsky continued
to actively practice law for 52 years until he retired
in 1991. He died in January, 2000 at the age of 84.
|
