People across Nevada are reacting with shock and grief at the passing of Gary Gray, the husband of Clark County Commissioner Chris Giunchigliani, who died in a car crash near Mount Charleston Thursday. He was 69.
Gray, a political consultant, and Giunchigliani married in 1987.
Nevada Highway Patrol spokesman Loy Hixson said at around 1:30 p.m., Gray was heading east on Kyle Canyon Road when his truck drifted into the westbound lanes and hit a Jeep Wrangler head-on.
Gray was airlifted to University Medical Center where he was prounounced dead, county officials said.
The 50-year-old man driving the Jeep was stable, NHP said, but provided no information about his condition.
“The entire County family is deeply saddened by the news of Gary’s passing,” Clark County Manager Don Burnette said in a statement.
“He was a great man,” Clark County Commission Chairman Steve Sisolak said. “He was loved and never had I seen a couple that had more love between them than Chris and Gary.”
Gary Gray and Chris Giunchigliani married in 1987.
Tributes for Gray also flowed in on social media. They recognized Gray for both his political work and penchant for travelthat took him to more than 135 countries on all seven continents.
“If anyone ever lived life to the fullest, it was Gary Gray,” state Sen. Tick Segerblom, D-Las Vegas, tweeted. “What a sad day.”
Gray keep a travel blog called Gray on the Road. At the end of an essay he wrote about why he travels, he wrote:
I wanted one more hill. One more discovery. One more wonderful, wonderful strange thing. But, outvoted, I joined our group as we marched downhill, past that fallen and hollow tree, away from the boulder which looked like the bow of a ship, beyond the chik-chik-chik of the chipmunks and to the dirt road leading to the cabins. It was here that worried parents came at us from above and below, up the road and down all swearing that they’d called our names until they were hoarse. Stern scoldings were followed by warm hugs, and we broke into our separate parts for supper. Now, sixty years afterward, I’m still looking for that next hill and hoping I can get to the top before I have to return. I know, I just know, that there is still one more wonderful, wonderful strange thing some place where stones are warmed by the sun, frightful and terrific things hide in the darker recesses, and the world is new.
Steve Sisolak, chairman, Clark County Commission; Steve Sebelius, political columnist, Las Vegas Review-Journal
