The State Bar of Texas joins family, friends, and colleagues in mourning the loss of 2017-2018 President Tom Vick, who died August 23 at age 71.
Born February 17, 1955, in Austin, to Gabe T. Vick Sr. and Luanne Johnson Vick, Vick grew up in Weatherford, where his childhood was spent running along his neighborhood creek with his friends and tagging along with his father at work on the weekends.
Service to community was instilled in him at an early age. When Vick was 9, he would ride with his father, the county judge, in a black 1958 Pontiac, engaging with people across rural Parker County. They stopped at tiny farmhouses and coffee shops to talk to people about their concerns.
Vick loved watching his dad help their community and would spend Saturdays sitting in his father’s leather chair at the office as he worked. The time spent with him, shaped Vick’s desire to become a lawyer.
“My father had the greatest impact on me both as a public servant and a lawyer,” he told the Texas Bar Journal in 2017.
Standing at 6-foot-8, Vick played basketball at Austin College, where he chose to attend school because of its priority of academics over sports. He went on to earn his law degree from South Texas College of Law and was admitted to the State Bar in 1981.
Vick returned to Weatherford to open a law practice with his father. Their practice, known as VickCarney today, operates from a renovated historic opera house catty-cornered from the Parker County Courthouse.
His commitment to his hometown saw Vick serving in many roles. Very quickly after opening his family law practice, Vick, age 27, was elected mayor of Weatherford in 1982. In his four years leading the city, his administration built a new fire station and city hall, funded without an increase in taxes. He additionally served as a trustee for Weatherford College and Weatherford Independent School District.
Vick believed in lawyers’ obligation to help people, notably mobilizing hundreds of volunteer attorneys to protect children’s rights in the Eldorado custody litigation.
“I was constantly guided by a single principle: Despite all of the politics, rhetoric, and special interests, if I would ask myself, What is best for children?, I would find the right answer,” he told the Texas Bar Journal in 2016. “At every level of leadership and governance, as in personal and professional life, you should have a guiding principle for your decisions.”
Vick stepped into leadership at the State Bar, helping the bar find former Executive Director Michelle Hunter’s successor in Trey Apffel. He again met the moment when Hurricane Harvey thrashed the Gulf Coast of Texas on August 25, 2017.
Vick called for and took part in disaster relief efforts, helping the bar mobilize volunteer lawyers for other attorneys and members of the public in need. He spent time meeting with people in shelters in Houston, ready to offer legal advice and other services, including establishing temporary housing, office space, and cleanup.
The State Bar, under Vick’s presidency, navigated an ongoing Sunset review; served more than a quarter of a million young Texans through Law-Related Education efforts; appointed hundreds of volunteers on committees; rewrote nominations and elections rules to be more equitable; and rewrote the State Bar Board Policy Manual to stay current and consistent with the State Bar Act and Supreme Court Rules.
Over the years, recognition of Vick’s work in and out of the legal profession was seen in two State Bar presidential citations, the State Bar Family Law Section’s Dan R. Price Award, the Texas Academy of Family Law Specialists Judge Sam Emison Award, the Outstanding Citizen Award from the Weatherford Chamber of Commerce, and Austin College’s Distinguished Alumni Award.
“In family law, we are affecting people’s lives every day,” he told the Texas Bar Journal in 2017. “We are representing good people at some of the worst times in their lives. We can help them through these crises and work with them to find positive ways to survive and move forward.”
He is remembered for his integrity and humility and for his love for his hometown, profession, and family, all of which shaped a life of meaningful service.
Vick is survived by his son, attorney Gabe Thomas Vick III; daughter, Vanessa Lee Lester; brothers, John Randol Vick and Michael Frederick Vick; and three grandchildren.