W. Page Keeton

Career as law school dean

Keeton served as dean of the law school at the

Keeton was a prolific writer and one of the foremost authorities on the law of

Over the years Keeton dealt with a number of individual instances in which a prominent alumnus or powerful politician would urge him to silence or get rid of faculty members who were espousing unpopular or unorthodox political and social ideas. Dean Keeton would say:

"Well, we have people on the faculty that feel just as you do about the [particular social] issue that you're talking about, except for one thing. They believe in the idea that we ought to have freedom of thought on the faculty, and we ought to tolerate people on the faculty that disagree . ... In other words, they agree with your position on this issue, except they don't agree with your position that nobody else ought to be on the law faculty with a different position."

Foundation founder

Keeton considered his greatest accomplishment as dean the formation of the University of Texas Law School Foundation, a separate educational corporation with a "powerful board, [one] that the administration just couldn't brush off." The members of the Foundation Board were prominent and successful lawyers who could contribute funds, raise funds, assure other alumni that their gifts would be used for the law school and not some other purpose, and resist efforts by the university administration and the legislature to reduce the law school's funding in response to its successes in fund-raising. As Dean Keeton later summarized his thinking, "it pays to have a power structure of your own." When the chancellor of the university objected to the fact that the existence of the Law School Foundation's Board alongside the University's Board of Regents meant "that you'd have two boards to deal with, and you'd multiply your problems," Keeton responded: "Look, it's better to have money and problems than no money."

Upon retirement, Keeton offered, "If I had it to do all over again, I don't know that I could do near as well."

Honors