Southwestern Magazine | Spring 2020

Frank Andrews (1864–1936) Class of 1885 Born in Fayetteville, Texas, in 1864, Frank Andrews graduated from Southwestern University in 1885 and was admitted to the State Bar of Texas in 1887. He served as the city attorney in Belton, Texas, from 1888 to 1891. After Belton, Andrews became the first assistant attorney general for the State of Texas, serving for four years. After 1895, he moved to Houston, where he opened the law firm of Andrews, Kelley, Kurth, and Campbell (now called Andrews and Kurth, LLP). He declined three appointments to Texas judgeship positions, including a nomination to the State Supreme Court in 1918. In Houston, he also became interested in railroads, and with E. M. House and Robert Holmes Baker, he chartered the Trinity and Brazos Valley Railway in 1902. In 1916, he became chairman of the board for the New Orleans, Texas, and Mexican Railway. On top of his commitment to railways, he helped establish the Union Bank and Trust Company, he was a member of the Houston Chamber of Commerce, he worked as a developer for the Houston Ship Channel, he represented the Federal National Mortgage Corporation and Reconstruction Finance Corporation as part of FDR’s New Deal, and he organized the General Crude Oil Company. Joseph Tyree Sneed III (1920–2008) Class of 1941 Joseph Tyree Sneed III was a U.S. deputy attorney general and then a member of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit for nearly 35 years. He was born on July 21, 1920, in Calvert, Texas. He received a degree in business administration from Southwestern University in 1941, attended the University of Texas Law School in 1947, and graduated from Harvard Law in 1958. Sneed was nominated deputy attorney general to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on July 25, 1973, by Richard M. Nixon. He served on the court until his death on February 9, 2008. Hubert Renfro “Red” Knickerbocker (1898–1949) Class of 1918 Hubert Renfro Knickerbocker was the type of hard-hitting journalist needed for his era. His efforts to get the real scoop went as far as interviewing Joseph Stalin’s mother and sneaking into Spain to get insider information on the Spanish Civil War. This drive lead to the Pulitzer Prize for his series of articles bringing attention to the Soviet Five-Year Plan in 1931. Knickerbocker’s outspoken journalism against facism even meant his deportation from Berlin when Hitler rose to prominence in Germany. This did not stop Knickerbocker from writing, however. Afterward, he extensively covered World War II from the United States, Britain, France, and North Africa. In his later life, Knickerbocker worked for the radio station WOR, in Newark, New Jersey. He was still in search of a story at the time of his untimely death in a plane crash in July 12, 1949. Harry Graves (1877–1957) Class of 1895 Harry Graves was a hardworking Georgetown citizen turned Southwestern student. After graduating in 1895, Graves studied law. He was elected the city attorney of Georgetown three times and served three terms as an attorney for Williamson County. He also founded his own firm alongside his brother-in-law, D. W. Wilcox; they practiced together for more than 35 years, gaining some fame with their successful prosecution of Ku Klux Klan members in the 1920s. From 1927 to 1937, Graves served in the Texas House of Representatives, where he wrote the bill that established the Texas Highway Patrol, drafted several oil and gas conservation bills, and was an active Prohibitionist. In 1937, Graves was appointed to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, where he served for 14 years, retiring in 1955 as the court’s presiding judge. 32 SOUTHWESTERN