Dolph Briscoe Jr

DOLPH BRISCOE, JR. was born in Uvalde, Texas. A 1943 graduate of the University of Texas, Governor Briscoe served in the China-Burma-India theatre during World War II. He was named Outstanding Conservation Rancher in Texas in 1958. That year, he was named one of five Outstanding Young Texans by the Texas Junior Chamber of Commerce. Briscoe was active in the Democratic Party of Texas throughout the 1950s and the 1960s and ran unsuccessfully for governor in 1968. He was elected governor of Texas in 1972 and reelected in 1974 to the state's first four-year gubernatorial term. Governor Briscoe was best known for keeping his promise of no new taxes. While serving as governor, he chaired the Southern Governors' Association from 1976 to 1977 and was a member of on the Interstate Oil Compact Commission and the National Petroleum Council. Governor Briscoe also served as a member of the Executive Committee of the National Governors'Association (1973-1974). As president of the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association (1960-1961) he headed a group that raised $3 million in voluntary contributions to encourage the federal and state governments to launch a screwworm eradication program in Texas and the Southwest. The success of this program is considered by livestock growers to be the most important and beneficial development in the history of the industry, saving livestock producers millions of dollars each year. Briscoe died on June 27, 2010, at his home in Uvalde, Texas. He married the former Janey Slaughter in 1943; she died in 2000. He is survived by his son, Dolph III; two daughters, Janey Marmion and Cele Carpenter; and five grandchildren. At his death he was the state’s largest individual landholder with more than one million acres.