Carson City’s Glover, Pierce enter Assembly Wall of Distinction

Carson City’s Alan Glover and the late Peggy Pierce of Las Vegas were inducted into the Assembly Wall of Distinction on Friday.

They bring the total membership of that club to 16 former lawmakers and outstanding staff.

Glover was praised for his total 38 years of public service including 10 years in the Assembly, four years in the state Senate. After that, he was elected Carson City Clerk-Recorder in 1992 and served in that position for 20 years, retiring this past December.

Assemblyman P.K. O’Neill, R-Carson City, said Glover was elected shortly after he graduated from the University of Nevada in 1972: “He said he needed a job and couldn’t find anything else.”

He said public service is in Glover’s DNA, pointing out both of Glover’s parents held management posts in state government, his mother becoming the first woman to head a state department under then-Gov. Mike O’Callaghan.

One of the highlights of his career, according to his nomination, was when he served on a three-member panel of special masters in 2011 assigned to prepare the reapportionment plan for Nevada’s congressional representatives and the 63 members of the Nevada Legislature.

“The resultant plan was nonpartisan in nature and emphasized communities of interest, equal population and overall fairness,” the proclamation states.

That reapportionment plan and its maps has been described by a number of experts as the fairest and best plan Nevada has had in numerous decades and remains in place today.

He was joined on the floor by his brother Bruce, wife Harley, his children and three grandchildren.

Pierce, who died two years ago after a lengthy bout with cancer, served in the Assembly form 2002-2013. During that time she held several leadership posts including Majority Whip in 2013. She was long active in civil rights, environmental causes and unions.

Minority Leader Marilyn Kirkpatrick, D-North Las Vegas, said Pierce “left so many marks on this building.”

“She was a very small person but a big package of dynamite,” said Kirkpatrick.

Kirkpatrick introduced several members of Pierce’s family including her longtime partner John Sasser.