86R20692 BPG-D
By: Howard H.R. No. 999
R E S O L U T I O N
WHEREAS, Texans lost a tireless champion of higher education
with the death of former University of Texas at Austin president
William C. Powers Jr. on March 10, 2019, at the age of 72; and
WHEREAS, A member of the UT School of Law faculty for more
than four decades, Bill Powers took the helm of the university in
2006; he implemented sweeping reform of the undergraduate
curriculum, including the creation of mandatory signature courses
for freshmen, and he guided the establishment of both the School of
Undergraduate Studies and the Dell Medical School, the first new
medical school at a tier one public university in decades; his
commitment to increasing the four-year graduation rate brought a
dramatic improvement, from about 50 percent to nearly 70 percent;
and
WHEREAS, Mr. Powers strived to make the university more
efficient and accountable while also raising $3.1 billion through
his eight-year Campaign for Texas; in addition, he launched the
ESPN-owned Longhorn Network, which is expected to generate $300
million over 20 years, much of that for the endowment of faculty
chairs; under his leadership, the construction of 13 major
buildings was commenced or completed; he established a vice
presidency to oversee diversity and community engagement, and he
was a stalwart advocate for the use of race and ethnicity as one
factor in admissions, pursuing the Fisher affirmative action case
all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court and winning a landmark ruling;
moreover, he was a fierce defender of the academic values and
world-changing research that made his institution a "university of
the first class"; he enjoyed a sterling reputation in the higher
education community, and in 2013, he was elected chair of the
Association of American Universities, which represents the top
research universities in the U.S. and Canada; when he stepped down
as UT president two years later, his administration ranked as the
second-longest in UT history; and
WHEREAS, Born in Los Angeles in 1946, Mr. Powers was the son
of Mildred Rose Powers and William Charles Powers Sr.; he grew up in
Southern California and earned his bachelor's degree in chemistry
from the University of California, Berkeley; after serving in the
U.S. Navy for three years, he graduated magna cum laude from
Harvard Law School, where he was managing editor of the Harvard Law
Review; he clerked for a judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the
Ninth Circuit and taught at the University of Washington, the
University of Michigan, and Southern Methodist University before
joining the UT Law faculty in 1977; and
WHEREAS, Mr. Powers became one of the nation's foremost
experts on torts, and he was appointed by the prestigious American
Law Institute as Reporter for Restatement (Third) for Torts, the
most important text for practitioners in that field; his
outstanding work then prompted the ALI to name him the R. Ammi
Cutter Reporter; the author of numerous other articles and books on
tort law and legal philosophy, he was much in demand as a consultant
on a wide range of complex tort cases, and he argued 50 cases before
the Texas Supreme Court; at the same time, his teaching and
mentorship influenced generations of attorneys; and
WHEREAS, While serving as dean of the law school, Mr. Powers
was appointed to Enron's board of directors to lead an internal
probe of the company's financial dealings and its ultimate
collapse; his exhaustive report became a road map for more than a
dozen congressional and executive branch investigations of
corporate malfeasance, and it resulted in criminal prosecutions; in
the wake of the scandal, Congress passed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act to
strengthen financial and securities regulations; and
WHEREAS, After leaving UT, Mr. Powers became of counsel to
the Jackson Walker law firm, where he generously shared his
knowledge with newly minted attorneys and seasoned professionals
alike; he was the recipient of many accolades, among them the Robert
B. McKay Award from the American Bar Association and the French
Order of the Légion d'Honneur, and he was selected as the 2014
Alumnus of the Year by UC-Berkeley; and
WHEREAS, Bill Powers was a brilliant attorney, leading legal
scholar, and visionary standard-bearer for higher education, and
although he will be deeply missed by all who were privileged to
share in the richness of his life, he has left an indelible imprint
on both the practice of law and the educational landscape; now,
therefore, be it
RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives of the 86th Texas
Legislature hereby pay tribute to the memory of Bill Powers and
extend sincere sympathy to the members of his family: to his wife of
36 years, Kim Heilbrun; to his children, Matt, Kate, Allison,
Annie, and Reid Powers; to his sister, Susan Powers; to his six
grandchildren; and to all who mourn his passing; and, be it further
RESOLVED, That an official copy of this resolution be
prepared for his family and that when the Texas House of
Representatives adjourns this day, it do so in memory of Bill
Powers.