Greg Waldrop

Greg Alan Waldrop
Judge of the Texas 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals, Place 2
In office 2005 – September 2010 (resigned)
Governor	Rick Perry
Born	April 13, 1962 Lamesa, Dawson County Texas, USA
Died	May 5, 2021 (aged 59) Austin, Texas
Political party	Republican
Spouse(s)	Debra Denise Woodson Waldrop (married c. 1990-2021, his death)
Children	Duncan Waldrop Evan Pierce Waldrop Parents: Gordon V. Waldrop, I Barbara Fay Drennan Waldrop
Residence	Austin, Texas
Alma mater	Lamesa High School University of Texas at Austin UT School of Law

Greg Alan Waldrop, also known as Alan Waldrop (April 13, 1962 – May 5, 2021), was from 2005 to 2010 a judge of the Texas 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals, Place 2, which encompassed twenty-four counties, in the Austin area, including Bastrop, Hays, Travis, and Williamson. He was also an active musical arranger.

Background

Waldrop was born in Lamesa in Dawson County in West Texas to Gordon V. Waldrop, I (1933-2013), an agri-businessman who co-founded and managed The Country Store to serve farmers and ranchers like himself. He is interred at the Dawson County Cemetery. Gordon Waldrop and his first wife, the former Barbara Fay Drennan (1934-2020 of Farwell in Parmer County, Texas, later divorced..

Greg Waldrop was reared on a cotton farm on the South Plains. He graduated in 1980 as the valedictorian of Lamesa High School, where he met his wife of thirty years, the former Debra Denise Woodson.

He worked his way through the University of Texas at Austin by managing a cotton farm in Dawson County. He graduated in 1984 from UT with a Bachelor of Arts degree in the Plan II Honors Program, with concentration in philosophy. In 1987, he obtained his Juris Doctorate from the UT Law School.

Career

His first work in the law was as a briefing attorney at the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, based in Waco. He then joined the Austin firm of Liddell Sapp Zivley Hill & LaBoon (later Locke Liddell & Sapp) in September 1988, at which he was an attorney and partner in the litigation section. From 1993 to 2000, he was a lecturer and adjunct professor of trial advocacy at UT Law School. In 2005, Governor Rick Perry appointed his fellow Republican to serve as a justice on the Texas Third Court of Appeals in Austin. After his appointment, he was elected the next year in 2006 to the court for a full term. He defeated the Democrat Jim Sybert Coronado, 248,916 votes (51.3 percent) to 236, 314 (46.7 percent).

Judge Waldrop resigned from the bench in September 2010, with more than two years remaining in his term. Instead, he returned to Locke Lord Bissell & Liddell. From 2015 until his death, he was a partner at Terrill and Waldrop, in which capacity he engaged in high-stakes litigation for many clients. He was particularly skilled with his cross-examination of witnesses. His advocacy skills were motivated by his sense of justice and the search for truth.

Musical arranger

Outside the legal profession, Waldrop had multiple talents and interests. An avid reader, he excelled at music, woodworking, sailing, chess, pool, darts, poker, and dancing. He studied piano throughout his childhood and teenage years and played trumpet in his high school band. At UT, he played trumpet in Longhorn Band and sang tenor with the UT Varsity Singers. For a quarter century, the music director of the Bar & Grill Singers, in which role he spent countless hours arranging music. He performed at the Paramount Theater in Austin and in functions across the county. From 2009 to 2016, he directed two youth bands founded by his sons Duncan and Pierce and their friends, for whom he was the vocal coach, music director, arranger, and producer.

Death

In addition to his wife and sons, Judge Waldrop had two surviving brothers, Gordon Waldrop, II, of Muleshoe in Bailey County and Stan S. Waldrop of Lamesa. A third brother, Thomas Brant Waldrop (c. 1955-1998), predeceased him.