A Guide to the Robert Wilburn Calvert Papers, 1965-1975

Biographical Note

Robert Wilburn Calvert (1905-1994), born in Lawrence County, Tennessee, was Chief Justice of the Texas Supreme Court from 1961 to 1972. At age eight, he arrived in Texas shortly after the death of his father when his mother placed a young Calvert and his siblings in the State Orphans’ Home in Corscicana. He resided there for the next decade, where he suffered from hunger, abuse, and nearly died from the 1918 influenza outbreak, unfortunately claiming his sister.

Following his graduation as salutatorian from the orphanage’s high school, Calvert relocated to Austin where he attended the University to study law. Graduating in 1931, he was employed as a district attorney in Hillsboro. From 1933 to 1939 he was a member of the Texas House of Representatives, and Speaker of the House from 1937-1939. He worked as associate justice of the Texas Supreme Court from 1950 to 1961 until elected chief justice.

Calvert married his first wife in 1933 and had two children. After the couple’s 1958 divorce, he remarried in 1962. He worked for the Texas Supreme Court for over twenty years before returning to private practice until his death in Waco on October 6, 1994.

Scope and Contents

Correspondence, reports, proposals, provisions, minutes, books, newspaper clippings, and LP records compose the Robert Wilburn Calvert Papers (1965-1975) relating to Calvert’s legal career, judicial reform, and his activities as chairman of the Constitutional Revision Commission.

Administrative Information

Cite as

Robert Wilburn Calvert Papers, 1965-1975, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin.

Processing Information

This collection was processed by archives staff. Subsequent revisions by Maria Soscia, October 2011.

Detailed Description of the Collection