Robert Lee Bobbitt

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Robert Lee Bobbitt, a man who never seemed to hold just one title for long. He was born near Hillsboro, Texas, the son of Joseph A. and Laura Duff Bobbitt. And from the very start, Robert Lee Bobbitt was building something.

He graduated from North Texas Normal College in 1911, then pressed on to the University of Texas Law School, earning his degree in 1915. He opened a law practice in Laredo, which sounds like a fine enough story on its own. But Bobbitt was not the kind of man to stop at fine enough.

While serving as an officer in the 90th Infantry Division during World War I, he married Mary B. Westbrook. April 20, 1918.

A wedding during wartime, and that detail just sits there in the record, quiet and weighty. He came home, and Texas politics found him, or maybe he found it. He was elected to the Texas Legislature in 1923, served three two-year terms, and the last of those terms he spent as Speaker of the House of Representatives.

Then, in 1929, he was appointed Attorney General of Texas. He returned to private practice in San Antonio in 1931, and while he was at it, served on the Board of Directors of the Texas College of Arts and Industries. But the public kept calling.

In 1935, he was selected as an Associate Justice of the San Antonio Court of Civil Appeals. He resigned that post in 1937, not to rest, but to take an appointment as Chairman of the Texas Highway Commission. Now here is where the story opens up a little.

During Bobbitt's six-year term, the Texas Highway Department made great strides toward a goal of a connected system of paved roads across this state. You drive a Texas highway today, you might not think about the men who pushed that vision forward. But somebody had to.

In 1944, Bobbitt served as a presidential elector. And then, in 1958, he was appointed to the Board of Regents of North Texas State College. His alma mater.

The place where it all began, back in 1911, and the place where, in some sense, his public life came full circle. Robert Lee Bobbitt: lawyer, legislator, Speaker, Attorney General, jurist, highway commissioner, regent. One life, and Texas left a marker to make sure we know it.

What the marker says

Robert Lee Bobbitt was born near Hillsboro, Texas, the son of Joseph A. and Laura Duff Bobbitt. He graduated from North Texas Normal College in 1911, and from the University of Texas Law School in 1915. After opening a law practice in Laredo, Bobbitt married Mary B. Westbrook on April 20, 1918, while an officer in the 90th Infantry Division during World War I. Bobbitt was elected to the Texas Legislature in 1923, served three two-year terms, the last as Speaker of the House of Representatives, and was appointed Attorney General in 1929. He returned to private practice in San Antonio in 1931, and served on the Board of Directors of the Texas College of Arts and Industries. In 1935, he was selected as an Associate Justice of the San Antonio Court of Civil Appeals, a post from which he resigned in 1937 to receive an appointment as the Chairman of the Texas Highway Commission. During Bobbitt's six-year term, the Texas Highway Department made great strides toward a goal of a connected system of paved roads in the state. In 1944, Bobbitt was a presidential elector, and, in 1958, was appointed to his last public service post, as a member of the Board of Regents of North Texas State College, his Alma Mater. 1974