Philanthropist and Democratic patron Rapoport dies

The Texas Observer 4/6/12

Bernard Rapoport, 1917 - 2012
A Life Examined

I CAME TO KNOW BERNARD RAPOPORT when he was chair of the University of Texas System Board of Regents, and I was editor of this publication in the early 1990s. One of our writers was reporting on a story about conflicts of interest within the UT administration. When the university president ignored our requests for what we believed was public information, we did what reporters do. We sent a Texas Public Information Act request letter to each member of the Board of Regents—including board Chair Bernard Rapoport.

B—who passed away late Thursday night in Waco—had been the Observer’s most generous and dependable financial supporter since the 1960s. The University of Texas Board of Regents was the only political appointment he’d ever wanted, and he went at it with the enthusiasm, intelligence and energy he had devoted to American Income Life — the insurance company he and his wife Audre started with a $25,000 investment in 1951.

Without even a phone call to warn him, we had sent B and each of his colleagues on the Board of Regents registered letters, which state law compelled them to answer.

His response was immediate.

On the day he received his letter, he called the publisher’s office.

“Who the hell is running the show down there?” he asked.