Robert Dawson swore he would never live in a little town again after growing up in the small farm town of Vandalia, Missouri.
Instead, he ended up living in Fentress, Texas, with about 200 citizens and countless horses. Dawson's small-town attitude made him easy to talk with and fun to be around, said Jack Sampson, UT law professor.
"To meet him, you wouldn't know he was a professor because he lacked pomposity," Sampson said.
Dawson spent about 35 years teaching law at the University and was still a professor of criminal law, until he died from lung cancer Sunday at the age of 65.
Three months ago, Dawson told Julius Getman, his colleague and friend, that he knew he was too ill to get into a new experimental treatment program.
"What stands out the most about Bob is the grace he used in dealing with his cancer. Courage is grace under pressure, and he had that," said Getman, a UT criminal law professor.
After six years of teaching at UT, Dawson formed the Criminal Defense Clinic in 1974. In the clinic, law students gain procedural knowledge as well as hands-on experience in court representing criminal defendants. He directed the clinic for almost 30 years, simultaneously teaching other classes. Faculty members rarely do both because of the workload involved in clinics, Sampson said.
Three years after he resigned as director of the clinic, Dawson began the Actual Innocence Clinic, whose participants investigate convicts who say they are innocent of the crimes for which they were convicted. After an extensive career in criminal law, Dawson referred to himself as "Mad Dog" in classrooms, which, according to Sampson, is a popular term for ruthless prosecuters.
"Calling him that would be like calling a fat guy 'slim' or a bald guy 'curly'; it's the opposite of how he was," Sampson said.
As a private contractor for the state in 1973, Dawson was instrumental in grouping all juvenile justice laws into one comprehensive section, called Title 3 under the Family Code. In 1995, when the Texas Legislature decided to update laws pertaining to juvenile justice under Title 3, he reviewed and rewrote the code for Rep. Toby Goodman, R-Arlington, who then passed the new comprehensive bill based on Dawson's work.
One of the major changes in Dawson's life came when he married his wife Jan, who loved horses, Sampson said. The two ended up living on her family's land in Fentress and converted it to a horse ranch. Dawson became an equine law expert in the process.
"His major accomplishment was his family, but professionally it was twofold: first, he wrote all of the juvenile law in Texas, and second, he was a beloved teacher who left an indelible imprint on students," said William Powers, dean of the UT School of Law.
Dawson was a daily part of Powers' life, and the two went to lunch together with about five of their colleagues every day for 15 years.
"We just miss him," Powers said.
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