Royal Brin
Royal Brin, Jr. was born at the old St. Paul hospital in Dallas on October 9, 1919. His paternal grandparents, Hyman and Jenny Brin, came from the Russia-Poland border region, with his grandfather arriving in the United States in 1868 and opening a store in Ennis, Texas, where Royal's father was born. His grandfather's census listed his occupation as capitalist, and his father was an investor who shifted from stocks and bonds into East Texas oil royalties, a move that protected the family from the worst of the Great Depression after the crash of 1929. Royal grew up in South Dallas, then the heart of Jewish life, living on Forest Avenue and later South Boulevard and Park Row.
Royal attended Colonial Hill grammar school and Forest Avenue High School, skipping several semesters along the way, then enrolled at the University of Texas, where he completed a combined program earning both arts and law degrees in six years. He led his law school class with a 94.1 average, reported to be the highest ever recorded there, and was awarded a fellowship to Harvard Law School for graduate work. He was driving across Harvard Square when he heard of the attack on Pearl Harbor. After working for the Office of Price Administration, he obtained a Navy commission despite difficulty passing the eye exam, trained at Dartmouth and Boston, and served four years across several ships, including duty at the naval advance base on Guadalcanal, where he attended a memorable seder.
Returning to Dallas after the war, Royal joined the firm then called Strassburger Price Holland Guilt and Miller, spending his entire private legal career there and becoming a renowned appellate specialist, including work on the landmark Pennzoil v. Texaco case. He met his wife Carol on a blind date in 1946 and married her on January 5, 1947; they had one daughter. A magician since age nine, inspired by a great-uncle, he helped organize local magic groups and served as international president of a leading magic society with members in dozens of countries. He and Carol were longtime members of Temple Emanu-El and the Dallas and Texas Jewish Historical Societies, with Carol singing for decades in the temple's volunteer choir.
Full Transcript
my name is Joe Rheingold and I'm interviewing royal Brinn today and it is October 2017 good afternoon mr. Brin tell me a little bit about your family that you know of or that you remember your grandparents onwards maternal grandparents and my paternal grandparents were Hyman and Jenny Wren and maternal grandparents but it came from Russia both of my paternal grandmother died when my father was just a young child so I never knew her but I didn't didn't know my paternal grandfather at the time I know him he was very elderly and partially paralyzed and diabetic and I could find a wheelchair and lived with us but had a a nurse with in mind all the time what city was this where we in Dallas oh you were here yes but where we see from originally he we found a census report from him in which he said his origin was Russia Poland and I I presumed from that that it was in a kind of border area that passed back and forth in in those days that he came to the United States in 1868 and he had a store in Ennis Texas did he come straight to Texas as far as I know and my father was born in anis Texas of course said who Dallas when I was born I was I was born at the old red brick st.
Paul hospital you know October 9th 1919 you just had a birthday yes October 9th I celebrated by 98 Oh Mazel Tov amazing my grandfather Hyman Brin in his census the census report we found on him was listed his occupation is capitalist what everybody about that I my father was an investor and had been invested in stocks and bonds but he had hay fever so we went to spent summers in Southern California which there when he plays he could get relief from what was then called hay fever now via allergies and he had a friend of his bought small royalty interests in the Getty number one
well well which was being drilled at Playa del Rey California near the southern coast there and we were out there when the well was coming in and went out to see it when I was just a youngster and it never did pay how it produced oil but it never did produce enough to pay off the original investment but it was of that a big help because it got my father interested in getting into oil royalties in Texas and particularly the East Texas field so that when the crash came in 1929 he had shifted from stocks and bonds into oil orders and protected us from the
worst of the Great Depression and you were in Dallas at the time still living it now yes Dallas had been my home throughout my life except the only extended periods away were when I was at the University and then in my four years in the Navy during the war second world war what neighborhood did you live in here we live well in South Dallas which was where most of the Jewish charity was and that mainly in three streets of Forest Avenue which is now a Martin Luther King jr. Boulevard South Boulevard and Park Row we were on Forest Avenue both the grammar school I went to was colonial hell elementary school grammar school and the only other grammar school in south tell us at the time was a ground school at that time things were looser than they are today and he could skip grades the school year was divided into two semesters and in grammar school I skipped altogether five five semesters the last one came about because two of my best friends went to summer school one year so that they were up and one one grade past what they were taught entirely we would ordinarily
been in by them but I wanted to be in the same class they were and so they allowed me to go even though I hadn't been to the summer school classes I always and everybody else always walked the grammar school and also to high school I went to 4:7 in high school which is now medicine high school and of course no no high school students had cars and those days nor did their parents take them to school everybody walked and part of the boy when I went to grammar school I walked along railroad tracks and with balance drive walking on the rail balancing each each
one was about six or eight blocks in opposite directions straight from forest from graduating for us to Avenue high you said you went to college right what yes where did you go went the University of Texas I graduated because because of the way I've gotten out of grammar school in mid-year I graduated in mid-year from high school but I stayed on and took course in typewriting because I didn't want to start at the University and in the middle of yeah I had I took a plan that they offered then in which you take three years in Arts and Sciences College and then three years in
law school and at the end of the six years you would get both degrees and that was what I did all at UT meant therefore a lot and you stayed there for law school as well right all six years yes I belong to Phi Sigma Delta fraternity which is a Jewish fraternity and later on that grew long after I had left it merged with zbt fraternity head but while I was going to Texas there was that Jewish fraternity and there were two others there was a Sigma health of you and talked out of the five the only Jewish surety when I started was Alpha Epsilon
Phi but some some time during the time I was there another one that I saw are dangerous already Sigma Delta Thal started there and they're all still there now going strong so did you go into the youth of the Navy yes immediately after college after law school on down the way in law school I had finished with the highest average grade average for the entire three years of Law School of 94.1 what's and we later many years later my wife and I have visited law school again and Boston and talked to the then archivist and librarian there who reported that that still remained the highest
average ever made and the University of Texas lost well that's amazing and when the grades had first come at had come out after the first semester in law school and the grades were published and I had led the class then and the Daily Texan newspaper which came out the next day and headline no trick to it because my hobby was magic and on graduating from law school I had received that was awarded a fellowship to Harvard Law School for graduate work so that I was driving across Harvard Square when the word came over the car radio of the attack on Pearl Harbor so I then
when I went home for the holidays a lawyer from Washington came through town getting it together a legal team for the office of Price Administration which was a new organization that's being formed at that and I accepted his offer and went back to Harvard is long enough to get my belongings and go off to the Washington where they quickly put up once at huts on the mall for the new organizations such as office of Price Administration and I was there and when it became apparent that the war was going to be going on quite a while I applied for a commission in the Navy and
the physical exam I was unable to pass the eye exam so there was a doctor there who specialized in strengthening vision through some exercises and on some equipment he had so I went to him for a while and then went back and took the exam again and I was never able to pass with both eyes at the same time but I passed with the one I had one time the other I had another time and convinced the baby to put them together so I was commissioned as an ensign in US Naval Reserve and immediately went on active duty I went to indoctrination at Dartmouth College
in Hanover New Hampshire which had been taken over the Navy to use to indoctrinate newly commissioned officers and after that I went to another Naval Training School in Boston with more specialized training in seaman's use of sonar and radar experience and learning how to fire the anti-aircraft guns 50 millimeter and 20 meter 20 millimeter articles which were a Swedish manufactured a gun because although those wouldn't be operated by officers and in practice the Navy's theory was that an officer needed to know how to do everything that crew under him he would have and then in that I was in the Navy I could indeed be
doing in a war from four years altogether and several different ships and one tour of duty at the Naval advance base on Guadalcanal and one Jewish connection there I remember a seder on Guadalcanal which was held in a big mess hall and Jewish personnel from all the different units Army Navy and Air Force got together there for a seder whether by a Jewish chaplain and I remember that even had you felt the fish which arrived in Cannes that is historic so was that 1945 already April are probably sometime in there and wardship God went from island group Thailand group as the war progressed finally ended
up in the back in Leyte Gulf was the last day as far as I had got aboard ship got determine artists back for two weeks leave so I got back to Dallas for two weeks and then most important for further artists the nearest naval district which was the New Orleans so I had reported there to wait by our further orders and was there on visa a day and I remember that everybody [ __ ] out to been in New Orleans you know Canal Street which is a very wide with a very wide medium down which streetcars friend will is completely packed with people celebrating and hugging's complete
strangers and no traffic to get by for hours but I did get orders then from there to Great Lakes never Naval Station to be assistant discipline officer the base there and there over the weekends that was able to go into Chicago and that was the first place where I really came into contact with other magicians as a group they had a place called Lee Chicago round table and a restaurant where the local local magicians and any mystic magicians gathered that was the first time I really came in contact with other magicians as a group and by then I had endured as an Hansen and I've
been promoted during the course of the war lieutenant JG lieutenant junior grade in then Senior Lieutenant and I was offered a further promotion to the lieutenant commander if I would agree to stay on to another six months but by then with the war over I was anxious to get home and to begin legal practice so I turned that down and and did get golfers I did get back and to protects us and Alice it was certainly after I got back in all this 46 met my wife to be on a blind date in September and we were engaged at November and married on January the
5th 1947 so wouldn't have been married for us 71 years he fixed you up who made the [ __ ] off who tried who fixed you up on the day because in the bun wife was a friend of my my wife-to-be and and called her and asked if she would go out with me since everybody I had known was by then married and gone and she said she would so I called her would get it off together pretty quickly she was some Gonzales Texas and had just recently moved to Dallas in town while I was set up at Great Lakes awaiting discharge from the Navy I got
out a little directory and wrote all the AV firms that's the highest classification and the legal directory of law firms there were about five firms then in Dallas and had that qualification I wrote all of them men talk about be back soon looking for a job and they all replied and said to come by and see him when I got out of the Navy which I did and this firm at time at that time was the name was Strassburger price Holland guilt and Miller we it had five five partners and two associates at the time and in those days a new associate had to be
interviewed by every partner and approved by every partner before it be hired so I had to make several visits back before I had met all of them and I was most impressed by this firm it's now just called Strassburger and price and it was one of the early days law firms jito they had five or six names in the firm name and we were one of the first firms to cut down to just two names because that was the way that the telephone operators were been to the phone yeah so my private legal practice has been with this firm all the way through to retirement
the retirement age was 65 but it was provided that the policy committee could because request a partner to stay active if they felt that was for the benefit of the firm so I stayed on active woman about another dozen years and also under the partnership contract never fully retired partner was still entitled to an office and the secretary so I still come down to the office two or three times a week and spend two or three hours here kind of keep up with going on in the legal field keeps you young and your mind sharp so how has your family grown you said you you
had a quick romance with your wife and then got married yeah no yeah we have one daughter was born in 1952 she is this with us now she has never married and at the time while I was still in college we'd sold our house on Forest Avenue and rented a two-story home on South Boulevard for about a year and then from that while I was still at college bungalow on Park Road for years so and by the time I graduated we had moved out too and purchased tea story home on Lakewood Boulevard and were they were there when I got back from the Navy and
when when we were first married we lived there and my mother was left there too my father died by the hand I purchased my mother's interest and my sister's interest in the house and we stayed into the house - like daughter was born and my wife Carol didn't want to be running up and down the stairs carrying a baby so we sold that house and moved into a house in was it's called the Preston Hollow area own love to drive with and that's where I out we're still are today the beautiful neighborhood on the side said law well interest is animagic and I started magic
but I had a great-uncle who live didn't destroy and work for Palmolive Colgate PT company when he was an amateur magician and after he retired he and his wife spent their winters here in Dallas to get away from the severe winters up in Detroit and he didn't that's it for me when I was very young pulling quarters from behind my ears and so on and promised that it show me how when I got old enough so when I was about nine years old he started me off and that's been my hobby ever since after I got back from the Navy I joined the Dallas Magic
Circle which is a branch of the Society of American Magicians and I helped form a ring of the International Brotherhood of magicians here in Dallas and it's a magic organizations are unusual in that both the professional and amateur magicians belong to the same organization I think because most professional magicians were originally had it as a hobby and later when it to it is a profession so that they're still enjoy talking magic with with others and in the eventually in 1969 to 70 I became international president of the which at that time had about 13,000 members in 54 countries around the world and as the past
international president I've remained on the board of the ever since and up until the last three or four years I went to the annual conventions that must have been fun travel let's become a little too much of a hassle but I try to keep up with story and I have younger days of performed mostly for civic groups and and the magic conventions both on stage and then closed up and if contributed effects to books of magic that are magicians purchased they find new new effects besides that fabulous hobby have you and your wife gotten involved in anything in the Jewish community at large well we
belonged my parents brought to temple Emmanuel at that time all over the temples the reformed temple and the sheriff Israel the conservative synagogue in the Orthodox synagogue were all in South Dallas in the gold moved north since then but I was confirmed at Temple dr. David left which was the rabbi there than that and I'm doing all the time I was in Sunday school and there was no bar mitzvahs then in the forum temples and we were later with that's where we were married in the South Dallas temple and by doctor left with the suite belong to the Dallas Jewish Historical Society the state the Texas Jewish Historical Society my wife has been active in the sisterhood she was a member regional member of the volunteer choir at JetBlue Emmanuel which will be celebrating its 65th anniversary next year she was one of the original four members that met with Samuel Adler
who had become the the music director at the temple and who wanted to organize a volunteer acquire and it did get off to a good start and is usually done about fifty members she has been active and still sings with the choir and it has been on trips around the United States and in Europe and in Mexico City too and some for various temples in the in those places as they're planning for the 65th anniversary next year on legal side was active in the Texas Association of defense counsel was president in 1980 and the American Bar Association and in particular section color tips which was
the torts an insurance practice section and I was president I mean I was chairman one year of the products liability committee what was your did you have a specialty well at first I did when I was at joined the firm I did everything that nobody else wanted and I tried cases and but eventually became more or less specialized on the appellate area and a handle the kick we we had as the firm rolled over we had and we reached a height of about 230 attorneys as the highest from the seven that were here what I started and while this is still our main office in
Dallas we they I have officers also in San Antonio Houston office Beaumont Austin College County Mexico City New York in Washington DC and eventually large part my practice was not only in handling the appeals from cases tried by other lawyers in our firm but we also was frequently employed by in cases that were tried by other firms but he would later whether that went up on Appeals and either either when they were appealing other they had one of the other side was leaving and so that that hadn't turned into later years that was the main thing and I did probably the largest gate I was
ever involved was the pencil of Texaco case which a jury verdict had come down for 11 billion dollars which was the largest jury verdict that had ever come down in Texas are I think in the United States at that time and both sides already had several lawyers each working on their cases but when there's a verdict that size came down they both sought additional help and we were actually approached by both sides ended up the penso outside it was an unusual experience because we had the the committee the briefs were sort of written by committee heats e to the lawyers working on the case had
one one area to deal with and then would write it up circulate in the government which we know the others when the world argument was held it wasn't held in the court room with the court of appeals but in an auditory over the law school because there was so much interest around the state how many people wanted to come watch so a lot of lawyers all over the state came and they were in the audience the court in the lawyers in the case were up on the stage and of course didn't ended up that by the time it reached the end the judgment had reached
sixteen billion dollars because of interest which have been accruing yeah that was by far the largest case either in summary can you think of can you pinpoint one thing that you are the most proud of is that possible you've done so many great things well kind of acquired the reputation as in the appellate field in Texas on yes doing doing the last year I had to practice being outstanding appellate specialist for the the defense sighs the firm originally made its reputation as a letter didn't feel from litigation but over the years development the business side and eventually had separate divisions in all the fields the
appellant field it was particularly I thought interesting because it cuts across all the substitute fields of law tax all personal injury though a state law as everything everything else got into court what's got up on appeal so that wouldn't be doing the same thing all the time they'd be getting all different kinds of cases to work on well you've certainly had a wonderful colorful life and career and I can't keeps on going it's not over yet if I know you you got another few good years in you there so thank you so much for interviewing with me and many many more good years of health
happiness and prosperity you