Page 45 - The First Fifty Years

Do Not Delete 1/5/2015 4:03 PM

ESSAY

CARRY ON BOLDLY:
THE SECOND DECADE OF
HOUSTON LAW REVIEW

Craig Joyce & Matthew Hoffman

“Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed.”1 So
began the first communication by Apollo 11’s commander, Neil
Armstrong,2 to NASA’s Manned Space Flight Center on July 20,
1969. From the moon. To Houston.

Andrews Kurth Professor of Law, University of Houston Law Center. Matthew
Hoffman and I are indebted hugely to the student members of Houston Law Review for
their continued diligence, and also their tolerant patience with our style and formatting
peculiarities, as we move forward with this, the second installment of a five-part telling,
decade-by-decade, of the history of a remarkable institution now celebrating its 50th
Anniversary. Obviously and above all, I thank Mr. Hoffman, Editor in Chief of Board 49
and University of Houston Law Center Class of 2012, not only for his support in
shepherding this project through its initial stages but for his generosity in joining me now
as its co-author. Katherine Witty of Board 50 has provided invaluable support during the
preparation of this manuscript, as have Peter Danysh, Board 50 Editor in Chief; Casey
Holder, Chief Articles Editor; Cade Mason, Managing Editor; and the many 2Ls and 3Ls
who furnished additional help along the way. Thanks also to Christopher Dykes of the
O’Quinn Law Library’s crack staff. Mr. Hoffman and I are grateful, as well, to Nancy
Taylor Reed (Shivers) (Board 14), Robert Pittsford and King Waters (Board 15), Donna
Burnett and Arline Worsham (Board 17), David Caudill (Board 18), Claudia Wilson
(Frost) and Bruce Levy (Board 19), Hon. Cathleen Cochran (Herasimchuk) (Board 21),
Robert Sergesketter (Board 32), and longtime Houston Law Review Faculty Advisor
Sidney Buchanan, all of whom contributed to the present essay and were offered the
opportunity to set the record straight in the event of any well-intentioned misreadings by
the authors regarding the “true history” of Decade 2. Mr. Hoffman and I express our
profound appreciation to all the members of Boards 11 through 20, who actually lived the
story that Matt and I have tried our best to recount faithfully here.

In keeping with the general practice in historical essays, all notations hereafter
appear as endnotes at the conclusion of this essay, where the reader will find also a
compilation of statistical trivia which the authors and the members of Board 50 hope will
enlighten and amuse, if not necessarily in equal degree.

Law Clerk to United States District Judge David Hittner; J.D. 2012, University
of Houston Law Center; Editor in Chief, Houston Law Review, Board 49.

39