Newport Beach Attorney Robert R. Hurwitz, 68, Dies

Robert R. Hurwitz, who co-founded a Newport Beach law firm four decades ago and served as an officer of the National Council of Christians and Jews, died Tuesday after a long struggle against Lou Gehrig’s disease. He was 68.

Hurwitz was diagnosed with the degenerative nerve disorder, also known as Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, a year ago, but he continued to practice law until last May, when he lost his ability to speak and was forced to retire, said his wife, Shirley Mae.

Hurwitz was born in Sioux City, Iowa, in 1921, and served as an Army officer in Europe during World War II. He took an interest in the law after the war when he served as a military governor in Austria.

Graduating second in his law school class at UC Berkeley in 1950, Hurwitz and his brother, Max Hurwitz, opened the first law firm in Newport Beach the following year.

The firm, originally known as Hurwitz & Hurwitz, is now called Hurwitz, Remer, Divincenzo & Griffith and represents Orange County clients such as the Costa Mesa-based Daily Pilot newspaper.

In addition to working as an attorney, Hurwitz served from 1964 to 1975 as a California inheritance tax referee. He eventually made that his field of expertise, serving as president of the Inheritance Tax Appraisers Assn., and vice chairman of a State Bar tax committee.

Hurwitz taught inheritance law at the Pepperdine School of Law in the late 1970s and was a member of several bar associations and other legal organizations.

Hurwitz served on the national board of the Council of Christians and Jews and was the founder and longtime chairman of the Orange County branch of the NCCJ. He said in a magazine interview last year that he got involved with the NCCJ to do what he could to reduce racial tensions in the county.

Hurwitz was also a member of California Community Foundation, Orange County World Affairs Council, Town Hall of California and Newport Harbor Art Museum.

After a foot operation in 1988, Hurwitz lost his ability to walk--a condition doctors later attributed to ALS. He continued to work, however, until the disease robbed him of his ability to speak.

“With Lou Gehrig’s disease, you never lose your mind. He lost his ability to communicate,” said Hurwitz’s son, Mark Hughes. “That was difficult for him.”

Hurwitz is also survived by a daughter Kim Davidge, a sister, Sophie Gendel, and a grandchild.

Funeral services will be private. Family members request that memorial donations be made to the ALS Foundation or to the NCCJ.