Sad news of David Gracy's death on September 26th. David was an archivist in practice, a professor of library science and archives at UT Austin, and Ph.D. in history who authored several books including his last one, a biography of George W. Littlefield published just last November, A Man Absolutely Sure of Himself: Texan George Washington Littlefield. When I saw him in Austin last fall, David hinted that his health was not good, but he and I were planning to have lunch when I was going to be in Austin early in 2020 (this was before the onset of the plague of virus). I was not expecting his death.
I first met David back in 1982 or 1983 when the "History Committee" of the State Bar of Texas (of which I was the junior lawyer-member by at least 35 years) was talking about creating an archive for bar-organization and professional history. David was the consultant (working gratis) for the project.
Today the State Bar Archive exists in the basement of the bar's headquarters, the Texas Law Center in Austin, but not a lot has been added to it since those days when David was involved. [What happened was that David suggested that the archive materials should include some meaningful files of lawyers, which suggestion triggered two thoughts in the mind of the bar's bureaucracy: (a) "Uh-oh!" Lawyers will be backing up semi-trailer loads of old client files and dumping them on the dock of the Texas Law Center; and (b) what if the obligation of client confidentiality extends infinitely into time? (I do not think so.)] As a result, the archive of the State Bar of Texas is today far less than it might have been, with limited utility for scholars and serious-minded lawyers, but it does exist because of David's good urging.
Rest in peace, my friend, David Gracy.
