BAYLOR UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF LAW SUMMER 2008 Professor edwin P. Horner 1916-2008 VOLUME 116/ SUMMER 2008 Docket Call is published by the Baylor University School of Law for its alumni, faculty, staff, students, supporters and friends. The Baylor School of Law, established in 1849, was the first law school in Texas and one of the first west of the Mississippi River. Today, the school has more than 6,400 living alumni. It is accredited by the American Bar Association and is a member of the Association of American Law Schools. table of contents Faculty News Alumni News page 5 d 24 Articles Selected by 44 Paddling His Harold R. Cunningham Acting President, Baylor University Dean’s Message Baylor Law Professor a Own Canoe This issue of Docket Call Top Source for Estate Editor Planning Practitioners 48 Nelson Roach Julie Campbell Carlson pays tribute to Baylor Law icon page 7 Elected 2008 25 Law Professor’s Amicus President- Photographers A Message From Baylor Law Letter Holds Sway in Elect of Texas Robert Rogers, Matthew Minard Alumni Association President Texas Supreme Court Trial Lawyers Edwin P. Horner, Decision Association Design & Production ECCO Design & Communications, L.L.C. Dallas, Texas who passed away Feb. 1 26 Getting to Know Baylor’s 48 Baylor Lawyer Abelardo Valdez Receives page 8 Newest Faculty Baylor Distinguished Alumnus Award Contributing Writers Farewell to Fast Eddie Lea Burleson Buffington, Becky Beck-Chollett 30 Alumni Gather at Baylor Reception During 49 Law Alumna Priscilla Owen Honored for Julie Corley, Cortney Dale, Heather Creed at the age of 92 Annual Meeting of the State Bar of Texas Public Service with Price Daniel Award BAYLOR LAW SCHOOL FACULTY and who taught thousands page 12 50 Baylor Law Alum Elected President-Elect of the State Bar of Texas Brad Toben, Dean One Memorable Journey Leah W. Jackson, Associate Dean of Baylor Law students Larry T. Bates • Ronald L. Beal page 14 Matthew C. Cordon • W. Jeremy Counseller over a course of seven decades. Thomas M. Featherston • Bridget Fuselier Faculty and Alumni Tributes Laura Hernández • Elizabeth S. Miller Michael D. Morrison • Mark W. Osler d Connie Powell • Gerald R. Powell Brandon D. Quarles • R. Michael Rogers page 17 Rory M. Ryan • Brian J. Serr 33 The Elder Statesmen David G. Swenson • James Underwood Those Were the Days... Patricia A. Wilson • Jim Wren 34 Faculty Scholarship BAYLOR LAW ALUMNI ASSOCIATION page 18 Rodney Gilstrap, Marshall, President Student News Rick Brophy, Waco, Past President Sustaining Professor Horner’s 51 Working Together for Good JoAl Cannon-Sheridan, Austin, President-Elect Baylor Family 36 And the Winner Is... Leah W. Jackson, Secretary/Treasurer 51 Texas Trial Lawyers 38 Commencements Speakers Advise Association Honors MEMBERS OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE Students to Become Servant-Leaders Baylor Law Alum/ page 20 Adjunct Professor 2009 39 Graduates Among Top Three Scorers Zollie Steakley Rob Ammons, Houston Sam Cummings Honored on Bar Exam JoAl Cannon-Sheridan, Austin Chris Elliot, Austin as 2007 Baylor Lawyer 40 Baylor Law School 52 Alumni Notes 2010 of the Year Awards Equal Justice Bryan Hughes, Mineola Scholarship To Pat Shackelford, Corpus Christi Rachel Sonstein 55 In Memoriam Mark Wilkins, McAllen 2011 Jerry Clements, Austin Vik Deivanayagam, Waco 41 Traci Kenner, Tyler NEXT STEP SUMMER 2008 Non-profit postage paid at Waco, TX. Please send address changes and correspondence to: 42 Going Hog Wild Docket Call, School of Law, Baylor University, P.O. Box 97288, Waco, TX 76798-7288 43 Phone: 254.710.1911 • Fax: 254.710.2316 THE E-mail: [email protected] ©2008 Baylor University School of Law All rights reserved Docket Call Dean’s Message The week in which our friend Ed Horner died was much like any other week. Ed was at school all day Monday and Tuesday. His presence at the school each day, for the better part of the day, was a routine that he had followed through years of retirement, though Ed had continued teaching a small sem- inar course until a handful of years ago. His days more recently were spent reading in his office, visiting around the Law School, having coffee with other retir- ees across the University, and most importantly, spending time each day at Wesley Woods, an Alzheimer’s care facility where Arden, his wife of 65 years, had been a resident the last few years. continued on page 6 4 Docket Call Summer 2008 Summer 2008 Docket Call 5 continued from page 5 highest calling of a faculty member. He that Ed would do a “once over,” updating Ed developed his own photo collection keys” arose, part of the worries about enjoyed nothing more than studying and pertinent sections as necessary, making of all 254 courthouses—each photo taken Ed and his driving. Ed protested that the A Message from Only a mild cold kept him at home the discussing the law (especially oil and gas some editorial adjustments and the by him in his travels, including many only places he drove were Wesley Woods, “ latter part of the week. On Friday evening, law and contracts) with all who shared like—nothing too overly involved. How I that tracked additions and renovations. church and home. We would wonder, in Rick Brophy, Ed drove to Wesley Woods. He had dinner his interest and passion for learning. well remember that Ed went way beyond He was attracted by the architecture, quiet humor “so, Ed, there’s no traffic President of with Arden, but was not feeling well when what was likely expected. For several the courthouse as symbol of the strength between here and there?” Ahhh . he left for home. Ed’s granddaughter, For many years Ed (along with our months, Ed painstakingly re-read every of a community expressed through the the irrepressible Ed! the Baylor Law Amy, who is Baylor student living with Ed, colleagues Dean McSwain and David case cited in the footnotes of the Oil justice system, and the history of the Alumni found Ed when she came home around Guinn) had been sought out by those & Gas coverage (TexJur employs long community personified in its courthouse. Over the last few years, Ed had several Association midnight. EMTs were summoned, but Ed Law School friends and alumni who string cites for most propositions). Ed Ed enjoyed traveling by car with a law hospitalizations and needed special had passed away earlier in the evening stopped by on an almost daily basis. They would fret when a case was only obliquely alumni directory by his side, stopping assistance with transportation, meals, Law school was enough years ago upon arriving home. simply wanted to share greetings and a or marginally on point. He’d “make it in on Baylor lawyers as he passed doctor visits, shopping and the like. Special that many memories have faded. But moment with him in his office. Whether right” in the sections and in the endless through towns. love and care was given to Ed by our Law some memories will never fade. One We have lost a consummate gentleman encountering alumni in his office at the footnotes regardless of how long it took! School team members Laura Obenoskey of those was the example used by who had a loving heart for all. Apart law center, at a Baylor athletic event (Ed I saw him, day after day, “spread out” (who was a special friend of Ed), Becky Ed Horner to teach mutual mistake in the faculty library and was reminded Beck-Chollett, Meredith Meyer, Jerri in contracts. I can hear Ed saying, each time of what exacting excellence is. Cunningham and Leah Jackson. They like it was yesterday, “was it Barry or have, along with others, given genuine Parry?” One of my classmates even We have lost a consummate had a Barry or Parry T-shirt. Since I There was a time, after we moved into the expression to the meaning of family within work in Waco and teach part-time gentleman who had a loving new law center in the fall of 2001, when the Baylor Law School community. at the Law School, I would see Ed Ed decided to give up his vintage—well, at heart for all. Apart from fairly frequently. He loved the Law least quite old—Royal typewriter and take In his last years, Ed had two fervent Arden and his family, Ed School and was always there, even on a computer. It didn’t last long—in fact, desires. The first was to be able, by his after he retired from teaching. Many regarded his colleagues and only a handful of days. Ed was consistently and Arden’s generosity, to reach a very adjectives come to mind when I think his students as gifts who were frustrated by the peculiarities of the word ambitious funding level for an endowed about Ed Horner—kind, caring, gentle processing program. This gives me pause student scholarship that he and Arden spirit, dedicated, smart, funny, and given to him so he could serve to remember something that made Ed established years ago and that they on and on. Baylor Law School is a them in whatever way they different from most of humanity: he consistently augmented. Ed achieved better place due to the years needed help or guidance. never got visibly frustrated, never spoke this goal, with room to spare, and the Ed Horner devoted to her. an ill word about anyone, and had an scholarship fund will be even much He will be missed. enviable equanimity. When uneasy, or further enlarged through a remarkably from Arden and his family, Ed regarded was an inveterate Baylor athletics fan and when quizzical about anyone or anything, generous charitable remainder trust, as Rick Brophy is a founding partner of Beard his colleagues and his students as gifts served for years as the University Faculty Ed had a signature reaction, one without well as the many memorial gifts made by Kultgen Brophy Bostwick & Dickson, LLP, in who were given to him so he could serve Athletic representative to the Southwest words: a broad smile, perhaps a shake of his host of admirers.