| IN MEMORIAM
ORAN MILO ROBERTS
Oran Milo Roberts, retired professor of law,
member of the first faculty of The University of Texas at Austin,
and former governor of Texas, died on May 19, 1898. He was 82.
Professor Roberts was born on July 9, 1815,
in Laurens District, South Carolina. He earned a bachelor's degree
from the University of Alabama in 1836.
Professor Roberts was admitted to the bar and
served one term in the Alabama legislature. In 1841 he moved to
San Augustine, Texas, where he was appointed district judge and
lectured in law at the University of San Augustine. He was later
elected to the Texas Supreme Court. A spokesman for states' rights,
he served as president of the Secession Convention in Austin.
He briefly served in the military during the Civil War. During
Reconstruction he was a delegate to the Constitutional Convention
of 1866.
After opening a law school in Gilmer, Texas,
in 1868, and teaching there for a number of years, Professor Roberts
was again elected to the Texas Supreme Court and served as chief
justice for four years. He won the state governorship in 1878
and 1880. He was appointed professor of law at The University
of Texas at Austin in 1883.
Professor Roberts wrote The Elements of Texas
Pleading, which was used as a textbook for many decades. After
he retired from teaching in 1893, he helped establish the Texas
State Historical Association and served as its first president.
<signed>
John R. Durbin, Secretary
The General Faculty
Biographical sketch prepared by Teresa Palomo
Acosta and posted on the Faculty Council web site on December
20, 2000. Additional biographical sources can be found in the
Barker Texas History Center and the New
Handbook of Texas, Texas State Historical Association,
1996. The UT Law Library Archives has addtional materials
at http://www.law.utexas.edu/rare/archives.htm |
