Obituaries--Kenny Guinn

Some sad news: Former Nevada governor Kenny Guinn has died, apparently when he fell off a roof this morning and then had a heart attack.

Guinn was basically a nonpartisan Republican, but I remember the Nevada media relentlessly pushing his candidacy. I didn't care for the fact he was being engineered to win. Despite my initial misgivings, Guinn turned out to be an excellent governor who I will always hold in high regard when he went up against the nutjobs in his political party over the "tax" issue and stood up for the children and educators of Nevada.

Some background:

A native of Garland, Ark., Guinn served as superintendent of the Clark County School District from 1969 through 1978, when he was named an executive of Nevada Savings and Loan. In the late 1980s he was president and chairman of PriMerit Bank.

From 1988 through 1997, he held top positions at Southwest Gas, including roles as its chairman and CEO. He also served in 1994 and 1995 as interim president of UNLV.

In 2005 Guinn was named one of the five best governors in the country by Time magazine:

More often than not, incurring the wrath of your own party is a recipe for failure in politics. But in 2003, when Nevada Governor Kenny Guinn fought for the largest tax increase in state history, he not only infuriated his core Republican supporters but also sparked a bitter legal battle and a short-lived recall campaign against him. So it is a testament to Guinn's savvy and leadership that instead of being wounded in the civil war, he actually came out stronger, eventually broadening his public support and raising his standing among good-government watchdogs, TIME reports. "The state will be better off for years to come," says Alan Ehrenhalt, executive editor of Governing magazine. As Guinn enters the final year of his busy two terms in office, his signature achievement remains the $830 million tax hike, a still controversial but realistic step to shore up the overstretched budget of the nation's fastest-growing state. "People say, Well, growth ought to pay for growth but I'm here to tell you, it doesn't," says Guinn, 69.

Guinn held no elective office prior to being governor although he had extensive experience in executive and administrative positions in both private and public sectors. This background served him well as governor.