James Calhoun Langdon

LANGDON, JAMES CALHOUN (1914~1979) James Calhoun "Jim" Langdon, state judge and Railroad Commissioner, was born in Stephenville, Texas on December 14, 1914 to George Munsey and Blanche Oates Langdon. He attended John Tarleton College and the University of Texas School of Law. He later worked as a special agent with the FBI in the U. S. and South America and practiced law in McCamey, Texas.

During World War II, Langdon served in the Naval Air Corps in both the Atlantic and Pacific theatres. In 1954, he was appointed judge of the 112th Judicial District of Texas in McCamey and five years later he resigned that post to accept an appointment as Chief Justice of the El Paso Court of Civil Appeals. He was later elected to a six-year term and held that post until his appointment to the Rail Road Commission in 1963 by Governor John Connally, a college classmate.

Langdon was then elected to the unexpired term on the commission in 1964 and won two full six-year terms in 1968 and 1974. He served as commission chairman in 1967 and 1968 and again in 1973. Langdon frequently used his position to attack the federal government for its energy policies and both Democratic and Republican administrations drew his wrath. An outspoken advocate of the free market system, he believed that the best regulation of the oil and gas industry was the least regulation.

Langdon was the commission chairman in 1973 when it took up the lengthy and controversial Lo-Vaca Gathering Co. rate case, which sent energy costs in the state spiraling. He was a frequent target of harsh criticism from those who charged the commission was granting Lo-Vaca unfair rate increases at the expense of consumers. Langdon retired from the three-member oil and gas regulatory body after 14 years in 1977 and said at the time he was leaving because there "isn't much fun in this thing."

After leaving the Commission, Langdon worked with an Austin law firm until his death on December 17, 1979. He was buried in the Texas State Cemetery two days later.

Information taken from December 19, 1979, Austin American-Statesman article, "Langdon, ex-member of state utility agency, dies."