Boxing’s Robert L. Turley Dies at 66

SACRAMENTO — Longtime California boxing official Robert L. Turley, one of the nation’s most respected administrators of the sport, died of lung cancer. He was 66.

Turley was executive officer of the California Athletic Commission for 12 years. He also served as vice president of the World Boxing Council and president of the North American Boxing Federation, two groups he helped form.

He lived in Shingle Springs, in El Dorado County, following retirement from the California commission in 1978. A year after leaving state government, he was an adviser for the Top Rank Productions firm of New York promoter Bob Arum.

He died Wednesday.

Turley leaves his wife, Betty; mother, Ethel Norcia of Seal Beach; son Dan, of Pinole; daughter Jan, of Rancho Murieta, and three grandchildren. The family planned private services in El Dorado County, where Turley’s father and grandfather are buried.