Page 174 - The First Fifty Years

Do Not Delete 1/8/2015 10:16 AM

168 HOUSTON LAW REVIEW

him in office were A.A. White, fittingly so given White’s support
for the journal’s founding, and Alan D. Cullison, who authored
for the Review the most interestingly titled article of its first
decade.65

Buchanan, better known to his faculty colleagues as
“Captain Nice” (in recognition of his legendary good cheer),66
arrived on the HLR advisor scene in 1970, after only three years
in the academy. The new advisor brought to his task a distinctive
commitment and work ethic. “I assumed that Professor
Buchanan would look at the major articles published in the first
part of the Review and that he would pass over the student
works,” says Board 10 Editor in Chief Jan Baker. “I was
mistaken; Professor Buchanan did, in fact, read every word that
was published in Volume 10, including articles, comments, and
notes.”67

“Always available but never intrusive,” in the words of
Board 27 EIC Tim Moore, “[Captain Nice] offered sage advice
whenever asked.” In short, he was the very model of a Modern
Faculty Advisor to the Law Review, as Moore noted playfully (to
the tune of “Modern Major General” from Gilbert and Sullivan’s
The Pirates of Penzance) upon the occasion of Buchanan’s
retirement from the faculty in 2004:

I’m brimming full of wisdom that's as ancient as a
pyramid,
But I’m not prone to giving my opinion unsolicited;
Although I have a point of view,
I only speak when spoken to;
I am the very model of Advisor to the Law Review.
(Chorus):
Although he has a point of view,
He only speaks when spoken to;
He is the very model of Advisor to the Law Review.68

Buchanan’s advisorship was interrupted in 1985–1987 when,
in order to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest between
his duties at HLR and his responsibilities as Associate Dean for
Academic Affairs for the Law Center, he stepped aside briefly
(and apparently only officially) in favor of the Review’s first
woman advisor, Irene Rosenberg. Rosenberg, who, together with
her husband Yale, proved to be among the true powerhouse
scholars of the Law Center’s middle period, left office as an
advisor upon Buchanan’s return to harness after two years.69

What followed was an important change in staffing,
reflecting the student editors’ increased ambitions and workload.