Ex-Assemblyman Garner dies; champion of education
CARSON CITY — Former Nevada Assemblyman Val Garner, a champion of education and adult literacy, has died after a lengthy illness and complications from Parkinson’s disease, his family said.
Garner died Tuesday at his home in Hurricane, Utah. He was 83.
Gregory Garner said his father was diagnosed with Parkinson’s about 10 years ago.
Born Jan. 3, 1932, in Cedar City, Utah, Val Zollinger Garner was the fifth of six children. The family moved to St. George, Utah, in 1942.
He was drafted into the Army in 1951 and served two years during the Korean conflict. After his discharge, he completed his higher education and married his wife, Carolyn Naegle, in 1959.
The couple moved to Las Vegas in 1962, where Garner worked as an educator and administrator in the Clark County School District. He later became an administrator of community services at the Community College of Southern Nevada, where he also taught adult literacy and English language learning programs, his son said.
“He loved working with those programs,” Gregory Garner said.
“Literacy was important to him. He knew the value of that. I’d say that is one of the things that he was really proud of and excited about.”
Garner, a Democrat, was elected to the Assembly in 1986 and served four terms. In 1993 he was chairman of the Assembly Government Affairs Committee. During his legislative career he also served on the Education, Commerce, Economic Development, Health and Welfare, Transportation and Elections committees.
He ran unsuccessfully for a seat on the Clark County Commission in 1996.
Garner, a lifelong member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, retired in 2000, when he and his wife moved back to Hurricane.
Funeral services are scheduled at the Colonial Chapel in Hurricane on Saturday.
The family asks for small acts of kindness to benefit others or donations to a church or charity of choice.
Contact Sandra Chereb at schereb@reviewjournal.com or 775-687-3901. Find her on Twitter: @SandraChereb.
