Joe R. Long

Joe R. Long was born in San Antonio, Texas, on January 13, 1930. He was the son of an oilfield electrician, and the family moved through several small Texas communities during his childhood, including Sonora, Oakwood and Centerville in Leon County. He graduated from high school in Centerville in 1947.

Long later said he grew up in a small rural community without ready access to healthcare, an experience he cited in 2024 when he funded a new medical college for rural Texas.

Long worked his way through college. He enrolled at John Tarleton Agricultural College (now Tarleton State University) in Stephenville in 1947 and earned his certificate there in 1949, when Tarleton was a two-year school. He then transferred to The University of Texas at Austin, graduating in 1951 with a B.A. in government and a minor in history and anthropology. He was an ROTC cadet.

After military service and a year of teaching, he returned to UT Austin for law school and earned his law degree in 1958. Tarleton State awarded him an honorary doctorate of humane letters in 2012.

An ROTC cadet, Long was called into service immediately after graduating in 1951 and served as a military police officer during the Korean War. Back home he worked as a salesman of cash registers and then of bandages and adhesive tape, and taught government and history at a high school in Alice, Texas, for a year.

After law school he worked as an investigator for the Texas State Securities Board and in 1963 became an assistant attorney general of Texas. In 1965 he entered private practice in Austin, specializing in banking, savings and loan, insurance and securities law.

Long was part of a group that organized two Austin banks, First State Bank and Community National Bank, and he became chairman and bought control of both. He went on to acquire many more banks and in 1989 consolidated them under the First State Bank name. Tarleton State described him as a banking pioneer responsible in large part for branch banking in Texas. He was chairman and CEO until 1998, when the bank was sold to Norwest Corp., now part of Wells Fargo.

Proceeds from the bank sale funded the Long Foundation, which Joe and Teresa Lozano Long established in 1999. From 2000 on, Long devoted much of his time to giving. Their gifts across Texas are reported to have exceeded $150 million.

UT Austin: In 2000 he surprised his wife with a $10 million gift that renamed the Institute of Latin American Studies as the Teresa Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies (LLILAS), later LLILAS Benson. The Longs endowed music faculty positions, including the chair held by pianist Anton Nel and a cello chair, funded the Miró Quartet, gave Diego Rivera's "Picos con naranja" to the Blanton Museum of Art, and supported the School of Law, College of Education and other colleges. In 2023 he gave the College of Education $3 million in Teresa's honour.

Long Center: In 1999 the couple pledged $20 million to transform Austin's Palmer Auditorium into the Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long Center for the Performing Arts, which opened in 2008.

UT Health San Antonio: Support began in 1999 with scholarships for South Texas medical students. A $25 million gift in 2008 named the Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long Campus, and a further $25 million in 2017 named the Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long School of Medicine. By 2021 their giving there exceeded $70 million and has supported more than 444 Long Scholars.

Tarleton State: The couple funded scholarships, study abroad and research, a $2 million gift in 2021 named the Lozano Long Division of Global, Community and First-gen Initiatives, and in November 2024 Long made a $12.5 million lead gift for a proposed College of Osteopathic Medicine focused on rural Texas.

While teaching in Alice, Texas, Long met Teresa "Terry" Lozano, a physical education teacher from Premont. They married in 1958 and made Austin their home. She became the first Hispanic woman to earn a doctorate in health and physical education from UT Austin and was later awarded the National Humanities Medal. They were married for 63 years until her death on March 21, 2021.

His nephew Mitchell (Mitch) Long serves as executive director of the Long Foundation. Long enjoyed chamber music, and the Miró Quartet often performed for him in his living room.

Long believed education could change the course of a life, a conviction rooted in his own modest upbringing and his early years as a teacher. He and Teresa focused on scholarships for students who might otherwise not afford college or medical school, especially first-generation and Hispanic students from South Texas.

He also believed the arts should be open to everyone. Of the Long Center he said that from the beginning it was about welcoming the community and showcasing the arts. He encouraged others to give, often telling audiences with humour that he had done his part and that it was now their turn.

Long served as president of the Austin Symphony Orchestra and was a board member of the Headliners Club, Caritas of Austin, Arts Center Stage and The Seton Fund. He was a trustee of the University of Texas Law School Foundation, where he created the Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long Career Launch Program to fund unpaid legal internships for recent graduates awaiting bar results.

Texas Exes Distinguished Alumnus Award (2000). Texas Medal of the Arts, arts patrons, with Teresa Lozano Long, from the Texas Cultural Trust (2005). UT Austin Presidential Citation Award, with Teresa (2010). Honorary doctorate of humane letters, Tarleton State University, with Teresa (2012). Santa Rita Award, the highest honour of the University of Texas System Board of Regents, with Teresa (2018). Tarleton State Legacy Award for Integrity (2022). Namesakes include the Long Center for the Performing Arts, the Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long School of Medicine and Long Campus in San Antonio, and the Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long Grand Foyer at the Blanton Museum of Art. After his death Tarleton State created the Dr. Joe Long Philanthropy of the Year Award.

Long's legacy lives in buildings and, as he insisted, in people. More than 444 Long Scholars have studied at UT Health San Antonio, and scholarships he and Teresa endowed support more than 70 Tarleton State students each year. Graduates such as emergency physician Dr. Joel Torres, a former migrant farm worker from the Rio Grande Valley, have returned to serve the communities they came from.

UT System Chancellor John Zerwas recalled that the Longs considered all the young people of Texas their children. The Long Center continues to host Teresa Lozano Long Community Day each year, and Tarleton's planned College of Osteopathic Medicine carries forward his hope for better rural healthcare.

Joe R. Long died on Wednesday, October 7, 2026, at the age of 96. The cause and place of death were not made public. UT Austin, UT Health San Antonio, Tarleton State University and the Long Center published tributes over the following days, and Tarleton announced the Dr. Joe Long Philanthropy of the Year Award in his memory. Plans for a memorial service had not been announced in the first reports.