William Pettus Hobby, Jr.

William Pettus Hobby Jr. (born January 19, 1932) is an American Democratic politician who served a record eighteen years as the 37th Lieutenant Governor of Texas. He held that office from January 16, 1973, to January 15, 1991, for an unprecedented five terms; he was the last lieutenant governor to serve a two-year term and the first elected to a four-year term when the Texas Constitution was amended to lengthen terms for statewide elected officeholders to four years beginning with the 1974 elections. The principal duty of the Texas lieutenant governor is to preside over the Texas State Senate. Early years Hobby was born in Houston, Texas, the only son of William P. Hobby Sr. and Oveta Culp Hobby. Both of his grandfathers were in the Texas Legislature. His father was also a lieutenant governor of Texas and the governor from 1917 to 1921, and his mother, a Democrat, was the first person appointed to the new position of United States Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare by U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower, a Republican. She served in that position, now the United States Department of Health and Human Services, from 1953 to 1955. Hobby attended high school at St. Albans School in Washington, D.C., Hobby then attended Rice University in Houston. After graduation, he served in the United States Navy for four years in naval intelligence. For many years, the Hobby family owned the now-defunct Houston Post, at which Hobby worked. He worked his way through the editorial department. When his father became ill in 1963, Hobby assumed editorial and managerial control of the newspaper. He remained president of the Post for twenty yearsuntil the family sold the newspaper in 1983. It was absorbed in 1995 by the Houston Chronicle, which is still published.