Former Texas Supreme Court chief justice and ‘judicial icon’

AUSTIN, Texas — Jack Pope, a retired chief justice of theTexas Supreme Court who helped establish formal judicial education for Texas judges, has died at the age of 103.

Pope died Saturday at his Austinhome, said OslerMcCarthy, a staff attorney and spokesman for the Texas Supreme Court. He had been in declining health for several months and was under hospice care, McCarthy said.

Pope served as a judge in Texas for 38 years, including as a district court judge, court of appeals justice and on the Supreme Court, the last two as chief justice.

He served on the Texas Supreme Court, the state’s highest civil court, from 1964 to1985. As chief justice, Pope worked to guarantee funding for legal assistance for the poor. During his legal career, Pope alsoworked for judicial education, assisted in founding the Texas Center for the Judiciary, a judicial-education institute, and signed the order mandating education for Texas judges.

By the time he retired in 1985, he had written 1,032 court opinions.

Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice Nathan L. Hecht called Pope a “judicial icon.”

“His hard work, scholarship, common sense, humor, and integrity are legendary,” Hecht said.

Pope, born in Abilene, earned his law degree from the University of Texas in 1938 and began practicing law in Corpus Christi. After serving in the Navy during WWII, Pope returned to Corpus Christi and became a district judge. He was elected to the San Antonio Court of Appeals in 1951and served on that court for more than a decade before he was elected to the Texas Supreme Court in 1964.

Pope is survived by two sons and three grandchildren.