Roy Mark Hofheinz, popularly known as Judge Hofheinz or "The Judge", was a Texas state representative from 1934 to 1936, county judge of Harris County, Texas from 1936 to 1944, and mayor of the city of Houston from 1953 to 1955.
27 Facts About Roy Hofheinz
2.
Roy Hofheinz graduated from San Jacinto High School with highest honors as a champion debater and started work in 1928 at age 16 after his father died.
3.
Roy Hofheinz matriculated at Rice University and Houston Junior College before graduating from the now-defunct Houston Law School in 1931 at age 19.
4.
Roy Hofheinz married Irene in 1933, a fellow law student; together they had three children: Roy Jr.
5.
Roy Hofheinz survived a stroke in 1970 that left him in a wheelchair; he eventually died in 1982 from an apparent heart attack.
6.
Roy Hofheinz had two separate residences in the Astrodomain: the Judge's Quarters, a 24-room suite on the sixth floor of the Astrodome decorated in an eclectic fashion that Bob Hope quipped was "early King Farouk", where he moved after the death of his first wife; and the Celestial Suites on the ninth floor of the Astroworld Hotel, with interiors designed by Harper Goff, which Elvis Presley reportedly found too gaudy.
7.
Roy Hofheinz decamped from the Judge's Quarters in the Astrodome in 1972; the suite was removed in 1988.
8.
The city of Houston designated the Bettes House a historic landmark in 2009; The Cochran-Roy Hofheinz House was so designated in 2005.
9.
Roy Hofheinz opened a private law practice shortly after his graduation in 1931, then served in the Texas House of Representatives from 1934 to 1936 as the youngest person ever elected to the state legislature.
10.
Roy Hofheinz acted as campaign manager for Lyndon B Johnson during Johnson's rise to the position of Congressman and then two Senatorial campaigns in 1941 and 1948.
11.
Roy Hofheinz lost an election for a third term as judge in 1944 and returned to private law practice.
12.
Roy Hofheinz helped reinvent the system which cares for delinquent and homeless youth; creating a model which provided 'homes' for the youth rather than treating them as young prisoners.
13.
In 1952, Roy Hofheinz was elected to the first of two terms as Mayor of Houston.
14.
Roy Hofheinz's son Fred served as mayor of Houston in the 1970s.
15.
Local landowner R E "Bob" Smith and Hofheinz joined HSA in 1959.
16.
Smith and Roy Hofheinz were the principal shareholders in HSA by 1965, and Smith became chairman of the board.
17.
Roy Hofheinz became the circus's Chairman of the Board starting on November 11,1967; his son Fred served as vice president.
18.
Roy Hofheinz owned the Houston Stars professional soccer team, which played in the United Soccer Association in 1967 and North American Soccer League in 1968.
19.
However, Schlenker denied that Roy Hofheinz had lost control of Astrodomain, stating "the judge will retain the title of chairman of the board and will continue to be active as he has been in the past two years".
20.
Roy Hofheinz admitted that he had lost control of the Astrodomain in January 1976, in announcing his opposition to a potential move by the Astros to New Orleans.
21.
Roy Hofheinz sold his remaining shares of the Astrodomain to GE and Ford in September 1976, retaining an option to buy it back within a year.
22.
Ford bought out the remaining GE shares in November 1978 and Roy Hofheinz sold the Astros baseball team in 1979.
23.
Roy Hofheinz was named University of Houston alumnus of the year in 1967.
24.
In 2006, Roy Hofheinz was inducted into the Texas Baseball Hall of Fame.
25.
In 2016, the Roy Hofheinz family filed suit to require the University of Houston to keep Roy Hofheinz's name on the school's basketball arena, where the Houston Cougars play.
26.
The university and Roy Hofheinz family settled the dispute, and as part of the agreement a plaza with a bronze statue of Roy Hofheinz was built near the new arena.
27.
The ceremony for the class was delayed a year by the COVID-19 pandemic, which resulted in Roy Hofheinz being inducted on August 7,2021.