Jack Schrade; GOP Legislator for 22 Years

Jack Schrade, who represented San Diego County in the Assembly and state Senate for 22 years, has died in Northern California. He was 89.

An employee at Sutter Davis Hospital in Davis said Schrade died of heart and respiratory failure Tuesday in the hospital emergency room. Nursing supervisor Victoria Ross told the Associated Press that Schrade, who had been ill for some time, anticipated the timing of his death.

“He called a friend, who is his (estate’s) executor, and said he was going to die this afternoon. An hour later he was gone. He just knew,” Ross said.

Schrade was a conservative Republican who was first elected to the Assembly in 1954. He served eight years in the Assembly and 14 in the Senate.

He was often at odds with the media and other lawmakers, including members of his own party. And he despised lawyers, who make up much of the legislative bodies across the country.

In a 1980 interview, he told The Times there were too many lawyers in the Legislature. Lawyers, he said at the time, write laws that are too wordy and too complex and “never contain anything injurious to the legal profession.”

Schrade served briefly as Senate president pro tem in 1970. He and James Mills, a Democrat, are the only San Diego lawmakers to have served in that post. Mills, who was president pro tem from 1971 to 1980, now is chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Development Board in San Diego.

Raised on a ranch near El Cajon, Schrade was a recognizable figure around the Capitol, wearing cowboy hats, Western boots and traditional Indian jewelry.

In 1976 Schrade lost his 39th District Senate seat to Assemblyman Bob Wilson, a Democrat. Schrade spent most of the next 16 years making Indian jewelry and Tiffany lampshades at his El Macero home in Yolo County.

While in the Assembly, Schrade had a reputation as an inveterate prankster. He once persuaded several lobbyists to use his “secret Oriental aphrodisiac,” which he gave them in small bottles. The potion turned out to be a harmless dye, but the lobbyists were horrified when they found it turned their urine the color of blood.

Schrade was the subject of a 1970 Sacramento County Grand Jury investigation. The panel investigated allegations that Schrade had a conflict of interest in accepting a $5,000 political contribution from a group representing state thrift and loan companies and then trying to pass legislation favorable to the industry. He was cleared.

Schrade’s wife, Margie, died in 1981. They had no children.