It’s All About the People

Trying to get Bill Barnett to talk about himself is a challenging proposition. Although he tries, really, to make an effort to answer questions about his years at Rice and his own accomplishments, invariably the conversation moves back to what he really wants to talk about: all the other people who have made Rice the special place that it is.

By Melissa Kean
Photography: Tommy LaVergne

Barnett’s emphasis on the contributions of others is both wise and true. To the extent that Rice has realized the ambitions of its founding president, Edgar Odell Lovett, it is because of the dedicated efforts of an entire community. Through the decades, thousands of faculty, staff, and alumni have maintained deep emotional ties to the university, and their work and unstinting generosity remain vital to the success of the institution at every level. Still, as chair of Rice’s Board of Trustees from 1996 to 2005, Barnett has made critical contributions to the continuing health and maturation of Rice as a serious university.

Curiously, Barnett’s contributions are so overarching that it is almost hard to see them clearly. Much of what he has done, quietly and thoughtfully, has been to bring about changes—some readily visible, others much less so—that will allow other members of this extraordinary community to thrive into the future. He has been, to a great degree, responsible for creating the opportunities, resources, and environment that enable trustees, students, faculty, volunteers, staff, and alumni to reach high levels of accomplishment in the service of the university’s mission.

Barnett’s many commitments to Houston and Texas have been so varied that it’s surprising he’s not a native of the state. He grew up in Shreveport, Louisiana, and moved to Houston only to attend Rice University. Like so many of his generation who came to Rice from the small cities and towns of Texas and Louisiana, he was drawn by Rice’s lack of tuition as much as by its academic reputation. By all testimony, Barnett was a very serious student, although—again, like many others—he had a bit of a rude awakening when confronted with Rice math and science classes. He graduated from Rice in 1955 with a bachelor’s degree in economics, but his real interests lay elsewhere. Coming from a family of lawyers, he always intended to pursue a legal career. Pausing only long enough to marry classmate Peggy Mauk the Monday after graduation (suggesting that he had, indeed, found time for something besides his studies), he immediately headed off to Austin to begin law school at the University of Texas. Law school proved a natural fit for Barnett, and during the three successful and productive years he was there, he was a member of the Order of the Coif and Chancellors and a comment editor for the Texas Law Review. He received his LLB with honors in 1958.

Following law school, Barnett returned to Houston and joined the firm of Baker Botts, where his practice concentrated on commercial litigation and antitrust law. He spent the next couple of decades building a family—Bill and Peggy have two children, Ann Barnett Stern and Edward William Barnett Jr., both lawyers in Houston, and two grandchildren, Carter and Margaret Stern—as well as a distinguished legal career. He is a former chair of the 15,000-member Antitrust Section of the American Bar Association and a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers. In 1984, Barnett became the managing partner of Baker Botts L.L.P., a position he held for 14 years. During that time, he led the firm through a number of significant changes. Baker Botts nearly doubled in size, added offices in Dallas and New York, expanded its areas of practice, and grew a significant international presence with the opening of offices in London and Moscow. Barnett became senior counsel in 1998 and continued in that role until his retirement in June 2004.

All the while, Bill and Peggy Barnett have given freely and generously to the Houston community. A native Houstonian, Peggy has focused her attention on education and healthcare. Always active in church and in her children’s schools, she also has served the broader Houston community in many ways. She has chaired the development board of the UT–Houston Health Science Center and has been an active and successful fundraiser for the University of Texas School of Nursing at Houston, where she was the founding chair of PARTNERS, a support group for the students and faculty of that institution. Her own contributions to Rice are innumerable, and she has sat on the boards of the Shepherd School of Music, the Friends of Fondren Library, and the Baker Institute Roundtable.

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