Robert W. Naylor

Naylor was born on January 21, 1944, in Reno, Nevada.[1] Naylor earned his A.B. from Stanford University in 1966. While at Stanford, he was editor of The Stanford Daily and earned Phi Beta Kappa honors.[2] Naylor earned his LL.B. from Yale Law School in 1969 and was admitted to the California bar in January 1970.[3] Naylor was a United States Army Lieutenant and served in the Vietnam War, where he was co-director of the Vietnam Orphans Airlift in 1975. Upon returning from Vietnam, Naylor became an attorney, working on political and tax law.[2][4]

In 1978, Naylor was elected to represent southern San Mateo County as the Assemblyman for the 20th District.[2] Re-elected to a second term in 1980, he was elected Assembly Republican Leader in 1982.[1] During his tenure as Assembly Republican Leader, Naylor helped craft legislation tying increases in funding for public education with education reform measures.[2] Re-elected to the Assembly in 1982 and 1984, Naylor did not seek a fifth term in the Assembly, instead choosing to seek the Republican nomination for the United States Senate, but won only 3.1% of the vote.[1]

Shortly after leaving the Assembly at the end of his term in 1986, Naylor was elected Chairman of the California Republican Party, serving from 1987 to 1989.[1][2] As party chair, he presided over Republican efforts to win California in the 1988 presidential election, which proved to be the last time Republicans have carried the state in a presidential election.[5] Naylor has represented California as a delegate to ten Republican National Conventions,[2] including in 1972, 1976, and 1980 (he was an alternate delegate in 2008).[1]

In 1991, President George H. W. Bush appointed Naylor to the Board of Trustees of the James Madison Memorial Fellowship Foundation, where Naylor served from 1991 to 1995.[1][4] He was also Chairman of the Association for California Tort Reform and a founding member of the board of directors of Calnet Business Bank, headquartered in Sacramento.[2] He also served as a director of the Civil Justice Association of California.[4] He currently serves as Vice Chair of the Leland Stanford Mansion Foundation[2][6] and as Co-Chair of Californians for an Effective Legislature.[7]

He joined the law firm of Nielsen, Merksamer, Parrinello, Mueller & Naylor as a partner, specializing in government law.[2] The firm was renamed Nielsen, Merksamer, Parrinello, Gross & Leoni when Naylor left the firm in 2011 to launch Robert W. Naylor Advocacy.[8][9]

Naylor resides in the Encino area of Los Angeles with his wife, Linda Kasem. He has two daughters, Daisy and Kristen, from a prior marriage.[2]

• Official website