* Donald L. Grunsky; Longtime State Legislator

Donald L. Grunsky, 84, who represented the Watsonville area in the Legislature for three decades. A native of San Francisco, Grunsky earned bachelor’s and law degrees at UC Berkeley, practiced briefly and then served in the Navy during World War II. Discharged as a lieutenant commander, he established his law firm, Grunsky, Ebey, Farrar & Howell, in Watsonville in 1946. Two years later he made the first of a series of successful runs for the Legislature. He received the Republican and Democratic nominations under the old cross-filing rules in 1947, and then won reelection twice with no opposition. When he moved to the state Senate in 1952, he was the first man in state history to win his first Senate term unopposed. Describing himself as an “independent citizen legislator” rather than a politician, Grunsky was nonetheless elected Senate Republican leader in 1967. He headed seven Senate committees and helped create and pass legislation revising state divorce laws, liberalizing abortion restrictions, curbing offshore drilling, assuring equal pay for women and enacting the state’s massive master education plan. He retired from the Senate in 1976 but continued practicing law until 1989. On Thursday in Santa Cruz, Calif., of pneumonia after suffering from Parkinson’s disease.