Ruel Carlile Walker

WALKER, RUEL CARLILE (1910~1998) Ruel Carlile Walker, Justice, Supreme Court of Texas, was born February 26, 1910, in Cleburne, Johnson County, Texas, to William R. and Hettie B. Walker, both of whom were from Kentucky. After graduating from high school, he attended Austin College in Sherman, Texas, where he was a cheerleader and, also, to get into the dormitory kitchen, learned to pick a Yale lock. In spite of this, he was named a Distinguished Alumnus and awarded an honorary doctorate in 1976. Walker received a B.A. degree, summa cum laude, from the University of Texas at Austin in 1931 and an LL.B. in 1934 from the University of Texas Law School. His class notes and course outlines were used by law students at the University of Texas for several generations after he graduated. That era ended when Dean Hildebrand announced to his students that he was finally giving an exam that "even Ruel Walker's notes won't pass." At the university he was a track manager, a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon, Order of the Coif, Chancellors, and Friars. He was also editor in chief of the Texas Law Review.

After serving as a legal investigator for Attorney General James V. Allred, Walker returned to Cleburne where he joined his father's and uncle's law firm, Walker and Baker. In Cleburne he served as chairman of the Cleburne School Board, chairman of the Board of Stewards of the First Methodist Church, and president of the Rotary Club. Walker also served as chairman of the county Democratic Party and as a member of the State Democratic Executive Committee. During WWII, Walker served in Washington, D.C. as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Navy.

In 1954 Governor Allan Shivers appointed Walker to the Texas Supreme Court. He continued in that position until his retirement in 1976. In addition he served on the Administrative Board of the University Methodist Church. Beginning in 1965, he served as a member of the first Texas Commission on Higher Education, now the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board.

Information taken from: Austin American-Statesman, May 10, 1998.