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Wednesday, Jul. 30, 2008

Former Fayette school board member dies

Arthur B. Rouse Jr., who practiced law for 42 years in Lexington, died Tuesday at Central Baptist Hospital. He was 91.

Mr. Rouse, a 1941 graduate of the University of Kentucky College of Law, had law offices in Lexington from 1948 to 1990.

Active in political and community affairs, he was elected to a four-year term on the Fayette County school board in 1966, and he served as vice chairman of the board for two of those years. He ran for the 79th District state representative seat in 1971, winning the Democratic primary but losing in the general election.

His father, the late Arthur B. Rouse, was a former U.S. congressman who represented the old Sixth Congressional District and was clerk of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky.

Arthur B. Rouse Jr. was born in Washington, D.C. His mother was the late Minnie Kelly Rouse. He was a graduate of Lloyd High School in Erlanger and a 1938 graduate of Duke University. While attending the UK College of Law, he was president of the Student Bar Association.

Before and during World War II, Mr. Rouse was a Federal Bureau of Investigation special agent and an officer in the Navy.

In 1948, he and his brother, the late Robert K. Rouse, built Ashland Theatre and adjoining commercial units, named Ashland Shopping Center, on Euclid Avenue.

Mr. Rouse also had been a longtime chairman and director of Peoples Federal Savings and Loan Association and had been a director of the Bank of Commerce.

He was a former member of the board of directors of the Greater Lexington Chamber of Commerce, a charter member of the board of Blue Grass Community Foundation, and a former member of the High Street YMCA board. He was a former president of the Kentucky Society of the Sons of the Revolution. A member of Second Presbyterian Church, he had been a church trustee, elder, usher and forum leader.

Survivors include his wife, Joan Essig Rouse; a son, Arthur B. Rouse III of Lexington; two daughters, Cynthia Battista of Lexington and Betty Ferree of Alexandria, Va.; and five grandchildren.

Services will be later. Memorial gifts are suggested to the Second Presbyterian Church Memorial Fund or Blue Grass Community Foundation. W.R. Milward Mortuary — Broadway is handling arrangements.