Former District Judge and State Rep. Jay Gibson died Thursday in Odessa and he’s being remembered for his impeccable honesty and also for his service to Odessa on the bench and in the state legislature.
Odessa attorney Michael McLeaish was both a neighbor and friend to Gibson and said he also appeared before him many times in court.
“He was just genuinely very courteous to litigants and attorneys who appeared before him,” McLeaish said “He had a marvelous sense of humor and was a very good judge and very knowledgeable. He will be missed.”
That sense of humor once led Gibson to order McLeaish to “wipe that look off his face” in court, McLeaish recalled.
McLeaish said Gibson was still a traveling senior judge who frequently heard cases in Odessa, Pecos and Monahans during the last few years.
He said he traveled to both of President Bill Clinton’s inaugurations with Gibson and also on family vacations.
“He didn’t change parties to remain on the bench…he was a good Democrat.”
Gibson was appointed to the 70th District by then Texas Gov. Ann Richards in May 1992 and served until the end of 2006.
In an OA story at the time, Gibson said he never set out to become a judge. “But when the position became available, I thought is there something I could do to make a difference?”
Gibson spent most of his life making a difference in Odessa.
Gibson moved to Odessa in 1975 and by 1978 the 28-year-old mounted a campaign for what was then the 73rd District state representative seat representing Odessa. He beat former Odessa City Councilman Dubb Duff 7,976 to 5,517 winning all but one ballot box.
He would serve as state rep until 1984 and then as the 70th District judge from 1992 until the end of 2006 when he retired. He became a senior visiting judge after that like former State Rep. and District Judge Tryon Lewis.
Lewis said he was sorry to hear of Gibson’s death and added they were from opposing political parties but were friends.
“I think it is important to have a judge who has a great deal of integrity and fairness and Jay had that,” Lewis said Friday. “One thing that made Jay much better is that he would combine that sense of fairness and seriousness about his approach to a case with a good sense of humor and an understanding of human nature and that is very special.”
He said he delivered a fair judgment and, more importantly, did it in ways that understood the humanity of the situation and “people could understand why what was being done was fair.”
He said both he and Gibson continued their legal careers as senor judges and that Gibson remained active in being a senior judge and that he was trusted to oversee serious cases.
State Rep. Brooks Landgraf said Gibson was a smart public servant.
“Whether he was serving Ector County in the Texas Legislature or on the bench, Judge Gibson sought to do good without seeking acclaim. His wisdom will be missed. Shelby and I are keeping the Judge’s family in our prayers.”
Longtime homicide detective and Ector County Medical Examiner’s Office Chief Investigator Carl Rogers testified in Gibson’s courtroom numerous times and described him as both nice and intelligent.
When several teenagers were accused of murdering Rachel Juanita Green in October 1994, Gibson was assigned to the cases, Rogers recalled. Although extremely rare, two trials had to be conducted outside of Ector County because of the pretrial publicity. Lincoln Keith, Josh Humphries, Dale Streckfuss, Brandi Jo Middaugh and Jason Trent were convicted in the case. Green’s granddaughter, Melanie Green, was acquitted by a Sweetwater jury.
“I always found him to be respectful. He was a good judge, a fair judge,” Rogers said. “I considered him to be a friend.”
Gibson was selected by Texas Monthly as one of the “10 Best Legislators” in 1983 and received the F.J. Sutton Award from the Legislative Black Caucus for increasing funding for predominantly black universities. He was honored by the Heritage Foundation of Odessa in 2007.
He obtained the initial funding for the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center as a member of the Appropriations Committee and chair of the Higher Education Funding subcommittee.
He co-authored the constitutional amendment allowing UT and A&M systems to spend earnings from the Permanent University Fund at system schools, including UTPB, for construction and maintenance of their facilities. He was elected president of the Ector County Bar Association in 1992.
