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It is with sadness that James A. Baker, III, and the Baker Institute acknowledge the passing of E. William “Bill” Barnett.
Statement of James A. Baker, III
Few played a bigger role shaping Houston during the past half century than Bill Barnett, whose death leaves our city without one of its most dynamic civic leaders. As managing partner of the law firm Baker Botts, Bill joined banker Ben Love and other community titans in the late 1980s to consolidate the city’s diffuse business interests by creating the Greater Houston Partnership. He sat on a number of other important boards, including as 10-year chairman of Rice University and founding chairman of the Houston Zoo, where he guided the aging attraction into one of the nation’s very best. And as a board member of the Baker Institute, he was irreplaceable.
Since our days at The University of Texas School of Law, he was my close, personal friend who was responsible for making me a partner in the law firm of my great grandfather, grandfather, father, and son. My wife Susan and I will dearly miss Bill’s wit, intelligence, and irrepressible spirit, and we send our deepest love and prayers to his family.
Statement of Ambassador David M. Satterfield
Bill Barnett played a critical role in establishing Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy in 1993. His extraordinary support and leadership — including his service as a member of the Institute’s Board of Advisors until his passing — were vital to its work over the past three decades. His living legacy is the Institute’s recognition as the top university-affiliated think tank in the United States. The Institute extends its deepest sympathy to Bill’s family at this time.