From Townes Hall Notes, The Magazine of the University of Texas School of Law, Spring 2000

FOCUS ON PHILANTHROPY

Joe R. Long

BankerLawyer and Wife Create Two Endowments

Joe R. Long, 1958, Austin lawyer and banker, and his wife, Teresa Lozano Long, have donated stock to the Law School toward the creation of a $1 million endowed chair in administrative law and a $1 million endowed scholarship fund. The two new endowments are part of a $6.7 million gift the Longs have given to The University of Texas.

"We both believe strongly in the benefit of education as a vehicle for upward mobility," Joe Long said. "A university of the first class, is enhanced with funds for student scholarships and professorial salaries."The Longs are both UT graduates, with five degrees between them. Joe earned a bachelor's degree in government in 1951 and a JD in 1958. Teresa earned bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees in education. The two met and married while Joe was in law school and Teresa was working on her doctorate.

A Native of Central Texas
While growing up, Joe lived in several Central Texas towns. He lived in Sonora until he was eight, then moved to Leon County, northeast of Bryan. After graduating from Centerville High School in 1947 as Senior Class President and Valedictorian, he attended Tarleton State College (then a twoyear school) at Stephenville before transferring to UT. Immediately upon his graduation, having completed ROTC training, he was called into the Army in the Korean War. He served two years in Europe as a Military Police Officer and was honorably  discharged as a First Lieutenant.

He spent two years working, first as a 1 salesman and then as a high school teacher in Alice (West of Corpus Christi). "I decided I couldn't make a living doing that," he said. As soon as the school year ended, in June 1956, he enrolled in the Law School. I wanted a profession, and I thought a law degree would be useful in lot of different professions, not just law."

After graduating in 1958, he took a job with the State Securities Board as an investigator. He participated successfully in the first criminal prosecution under the new securities law in Plainview and was made Chief of the Enforcement Division. In 1961, he left the Securities Board because of the illness of his fatherinlaw and operated the farming and dairy business owned by his wife's family.

A Dual Career: Law and Banking
In 1963, he joined the Attorney Generals Office as an Assistant Attorney General 'in the Bond, Insurance and Banking Division and the following year became chief of the division. During this time, he took part in numerous trials and appellate cases, principally in the banking and savings & loan areas.

In 1965 he went into private practice in Austin. Over the next twenty years, he worked as a sole practitioner and as a member of several partnerships, ultimately organizing his own firm. Throughout this time, he specialized in Administrative Law, primarily banking and savings & loan law. He represented clients before various regulatory bodies and handled trial and appellate work. "We didn't have branch banking in those days," he explained. "There was a lot of business for banks needing charters.

"Three years after going into private practice, he was part of a group that organized two Austin banks: First State Bank and Community National Bank. He was Chairman of First State from the day it opened, and became Chair of Community National in 1972. Ultimately, he bought control of both. In 1988, during a period of economic upheaval, the two banks acquired seven banks that had failed in the Austin area. All nine were combined under the name First State Bank in 1989. He served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer until 1998, when the bank was sold to Norwest Corporation. He continues with Norwest today in a consultant capacity.

As part of his interest in banking, he served for eleven years on the Board of the Texas Independent Bankers Association, which was owned by 350 small banks. "This was a bank for banks," he said. "After the holding company movement, smaller banks needed a number of financial services." In addition to law and banking, he invested in real estate, oil, stocks and bonds.

"Joe Long's career debunks the myth that lawyers are narrow or Limited," said Larry Temple, 1959, Austin attorney and Trustee of the Law School Foundation. "After earning die reputation as one of the best banking and I administrative lawyers in the state, he became an equally successful and talented banker. During the entirety of those dual careers, Joe and Terry Long were the most active supporters and promoters of the arts in Austin. The extension of their support and philanthropy now to higher education and the Law School is but the latest example of the breadth of their public involvement, commitment, and vision."

Active in Community Endeavors
While making their home in Austin, Joe and his wife have participated in many community and philanthropic activities. Teresa had her own career for many years as an educational consultant to the Texas Education Agency and to Head Start and other federal programs, including those serving migrants and native Americans. Today she is a member of the University Interscholastic League Executive Committee and the Board of Ballet Austin, and a Trustee Of Austin College in Sherman. She has been on the boards of other organizations, including the Umlauf Sculpture Garden and the Austin Community Foundation. Joe is President of the Austin Symphony Orchestra Society and a Board member of the Headliners Club.

Last year, they pledged $20 million for the renovation of Palmer Auditorium, which will be transformed by 2004 into a stateofthe-art performance Facility for the city's music, dance and drama groups. (Currently, these groups compete for space and scheduling in the University's Performing Arts Center and other venues.) In recognition of the gift, organizers have named the facility the Long Center for the Performing Arts. "We saw a great need for a performing arts center," Joe said. "Austin is the largest city we know of that doesn't have one." In the United States, thirteen cities have an opera, a ballet, and a symphony, and Austin is "clearly the only one among those that doesn't have a performance facility.

"Over the past thirty years, the Longs have become avid travelers, having visited more than 120 countries. They have also assembled a collection of more than 150 pieces of art, primarily of the Impressionist and Post-Impressionist styles.

Their gifts to the Law School will create the Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long Endowed Chair in Administrative Law, which will be used to support a professor who teaches and conducts research in this area, and the Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long Endowed Scholarship in Law, which will support students in financial need who are Texas residents.

The philanthropy exemplifies the Longs' philosophy about America: "This country offers unlimited opportunity to people of limited means and humble background. It takes persistence and hard work, but it is possible for all."