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Written by Staff Reports
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Friday, 01 December 2006 |
A graveside service for former Texas U.S. Representative and Senator R. Temple Dickson III will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday at the 69 Ranch in Maryneal.
Dickson passed away Wednesday, Nov. 29.
As did five generations before him, Dickson became a lawyer, a legislator and a Democrat; graduating from the University of Texas School of Law, serving in the House of Representatives, the Senate and as president of the Sweetwater Independent School District.
From 1965-71 Dickson served in the Texas House of Represen-tatives and from 1989 to 1992 he served in the Texas Senate as a Democrat from Sweetwater, representing the 24th District.
While in the Senate, Dickson served on the following committees: jurisprudence, criminal justice, administration, nominations, committee of the whole on redistricting, state affairs — subcommittee on elections and ethics, and economic development (chair).
As a representative, he wrote and sponsored the Texas Tort Claims Act, which for the first time held the government responsible for its negligent acts. This landmark 1969 legislation altered the inherited English concept that “the king could do no wrong.”
Appalled that a barber shop refused to cut the hair of a minority veteran, Dickson also filed what may have been the first civil rights bill in Texas. Dickson was instrumental in the creation and expansion of the Sweetwater campus of Texas State Technical Institute and considered it perhaps his most important local legislation.
In the Senate, Dickson proudly championed legislation promoting mental health funding, rural assistance, public education, substance abuse treatment, and tirelessly fought the big business lobby on behalf of consumers, workers, small business and the environment. |
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Last Updated ( Saturday, 02 December 2006 )
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