WASHINGTON-Laska Schoenfelder, state chairman of the Federal-State Joint Board on Universal Service and 11-year veteran of the South Dakota Public Utilities Commission, died March 21 of cancer. She was 63.
Schoenfelder was a strong advocate of the telecommunications needs of rural America and many said she pressed her views with a charm that was second to none.
“Laska was a wonderful breath of fresh air in the often tedious telecommunications debates. She had an extraordinary facility of cutting right to the chase, through all the techie talk. … She had the courage of her convictions and was not afraid to say the emperor had no clothes,” said Nora Mead Brownell, a member of the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission and president of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners.
“I considered her a great public servant and an invaluable asset to the nation in our implementation of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 and, in particular, our efforts to promote and advance universal service. The act depends on a close and evolving partnership between federal and state regulators. … It is a great loss to all of us at the [Federal Communications Commission], her state and the country as a whole,” said FCC Chairman Michael K. Powell.
Schoenfelder was originally elected to the SDPUC in 1988.
