RICHARD W. MAXWELL
1932 - 2010
Richard W. Maxwell, former Texas Tech Law faculty member, who died in Lubbock on
July 31, 2010, was a member of the first graduating class of the Texas Tech University School of
Law in 1970, and he was also elected as the first Editor in Chief of the Texas Tech Law Review.
After graduation Dick served for a year as law clerk to the Honorable Halbert O.
Woodward, United States District Judge for the Northern District of Texas, Lubbock Division.
Following his clerkship, Dick became an Assistant District Attorney for Lubbock County and
served in that position during 1972, leaving to pursue the writing of a novel about a murder case,
The Minus Man, published in 1975 by Putnam and Sons of New York.
It was in 1975 that Dick joined our law faculty as a visitor to assist with our legal writing
program. In 1977 he was added to the law faculty on a tenure track basis and became the
Director of the Legal Research and Writing Program. He became an Associate Professor and
was granted tenure in 1981, and served in that capacity until 1991. Since 1991 Maxwell has held
the status of Associate Professor Emeritus.
Dick was a remarkable character, rigorous, unyielding in his insistence upon the highest
levels of scholarship for himself and for his students, and as former TechLaw Professor Thomas
Baker put it, “He sought no quarter and gave none.” Having taught English and history in the
Lamesa School District for more than a decade prior to entering law school, Dick cared deeply
about language and grammar, and he exhibited that quality in the writing program and when he
was faculty advisor for the Texas Tech Law Review in 1978-81.
The setting for Dick’s 1975 novel, The Minus Man, was a small town quite similar to
Lubbock. In fact it depicted Lubbock exactly and precisely in several ways, although the town in
the novel was given a fictional name. Dick drew his characters in the novel from what he knew
of the lawyers, judges, police officers, and others in the Lubbock legal community, to the delight
of most of us and to the consternation of a few. One protagonist in the novel, a prominent trial
lawyer in the story, was described in some detail as an alcoholic. And one relatively prominent
Lubbock trial defense lawyer, who, upon reading the book thought he saw himself depicted as
that fictional character, took great exception to Maxwell’s description of him – as he imagined –
and told Dick so in no uncertain terms.
Dick denied that he had created any of the characters in the book from real persons, and
that any similarity to anyone, living or dead, was “purely coincidental” as the standard disclaimer
has it. But the writing was so effective there was little doubt that some reality beyond what Dick
perhaps intended had crept into the book, so that more than one Lubbock lawyer was able “to see
ourselves as others see us” (with apologies to Robert Burns).
Dick’s home during the time when he was a member of our faculty was in a remote
location near the small community of Slide, south of Lubbock, and it was quite modern in design
and featured solar panels in the roof. The home had been built to Dick’s own specifications and
he was very proud of it. A short distance away was a small rise in the land known locally as
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“shooters’ hill,” so-named because numerous sportsmen had used it as a backstop for their target
practice prior to the time Dick built his home nearby. Upon realizing that some of the bullets
were often coming in the direction of his home, Dick made it known to the local people in the
area that he would shoot back at any marksmen utilizing “shooters’ hill” in the future, and
according to Dick he occasionally did so. This story was given wide circulation around the law
school by his delighted law students.
Dick took his work at the law school seriously and was committed to making the Legal
Research and Writing Program successful and effective. He did so. He cared about his work
and he cared about his students and he always had time for them. He was a valuable and
fascinating member of our faculty.
Dan Benson
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