Red McCombs
TCJL mourns the passing of Red McCombs earlier this week. Red was a special friend of this organization. For at least the past three decades, he served as the Chair of the TCJL Political Action Committee. In that capacity, Red made an invaluable contribution to the vast improvements that we have made in the courts and the civil justice system.
Not one to blow his own horn, Red only cared about results and how he could best help us to achieve them. He lent his staggering business expertise and absolute personal integrity to this organization no matter the circumstances. We have no hope of replacing that, but we can continue to act as Red would have wanted us to: with an honest, bipartisan approach that brings everyone to the table to work together for our communities and our state.
But beyond that, Red had a vision for the future of Texas. For Red, you had to get the basics right now in order to reap the economic and social benefits later. That’s why Red was a prodigious supporter of public and higher education (particularly his beloved University of Texas). He knew what too many seem to have forgotten: that a society is only as good as the education it provides to all of its citizens and that, without a strong, well-resourced, and enlightened public education system and world-class teaching research institutions, there is no chance that a society can prosper, much less produce the Texas Miracle that occurred during his lifetime.
Red had strong feelings about some things, but the strongest was for his life partner, Charline, and his children. When he spoke about them, you could see it in his eyes and hear it in his voice. That’s what I’ll remember the most about Red. Here was one of the most successful businessmen and philanthropists in American history, but his love for and pride in his family was always top-of-mind. And this love and pride extended outwards to encompass the City of San Antonio and the State of Texas. As far as Red was concerned, all Texans were members of his family, wherever they came from and whenever they got here.
We will not see Red’s like again. But when we look around the places he lived and cherished, we see him everywhere.
A celebration of Red’s life will take place on Monday, February 27, at 10 a.m. in the Tobin Center of the Performing Arts in San Antonio.
