Joe Long, whose gifts reshaped Texas campuses and stages, dies at 96

Joe R. Long, an Austin lawyer and banker who with his wife, Teresa Lozano Long, became one of the most generous donors to Texas universities and arts groups, died on Wednesday, October 7, at age 96, the University of Texas at Austin said. Teresa Lozano Long died in 2021.

The couple's total gifts to Texas nonprofits and universities topped $150 million, the Austin American-Statesman reported. Their names are on the Long Center for the Performing Arts in Austin, to which they gave more than $20 million, and on the Long School of Medicine at UT Health San Antonio, where their donation was more than $25 million, according to the Statesman.

From bank chairman to donor

Long was born in San Antonio in 1930 and graduated from UT Austin in 1951 with a degree in government, the university said. An ROTC cadet, he was called into service during the Korean War, and he earned a UT law degree in 1958. He worked as an investigator for the State Securities Board, became an assistant attorney general in 1963 and opened a private law practice in Austin in 1965.

He was part of a group that organized two Austin banks, First State Bank and Community National Bank, and later acquired many more banks, which he consolidated in 1989 under the name First State Bank, according to UT. He was chairman and CEO until 1998, when the bank was sold to what is now Wells Fargo & Company.

After 2000, the university said, he devoted much of his time to philanthropy. That year he surprised his wife with a $10 million gift to UT's Institute of Latin American Studies, which became the Teresa Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies.

Where the money went

In 2018, the UT System gave the Longs the Santa Rita Award, its highest honor. By then the couple had given approximately $100 million to UT Austin, UT Health San Antonio and UT Rio Grande Valley, creating scholarships, faculty chairs and professorships, and program funds in fields including medicine, law, business, education, pharmacy, music and art, according to UT.

At UT Austin, Long's support endowed faculty positions in music, including the one held by pianist Anton Nel, and helped fund the Miró Quartet. The Blanton Museum of Art's Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long Grand Foyer recognizes the couple's work to grow the museum's commitment to Latin American art, including their gift of Diego Rivera's painting "Picos con naranja." In 2023, Long gave the College of Education $3 million in honor of his late wife.

He also set up the Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long Career Launch Program at the School of Law, which makes it financially possible for recent graduates to take unpaid legal internships while they await bar results and look for permanent jobs, the university said.

Through the Long Foundation, the couple established a $10 million permanent fund for scholarships for Hispanic students across the state, the Statesman reported. Long served as president of the Austin Symphony Orchestra and sat on the boards of the Headliners Club, Caritas of Austin, Arts Center Stage and The Seton Fund. The Statesman said he helped steer the Long Center through a rocky beginning.

"I know there will be an enormous outpouring of gratitude from various organizations and people in the coming days," Nel, a close friend of the couple, told the Statesman.

What lasts after a donor

In our view, the Longs' record shows how much of a family's giving can go to people rather than to buildings alone. Alongside the names on a concert hall and a medical school sit endowed scholarships, faculty chairs and an internship fund that keeps new lawyers working while they wait on the bar exam. Gifts like those are written to outlast the donor, which is why their terms deserve as much care as the size of the check.

Plans for a memorial service had not been announced, the Statesman reported.