Joe Foy

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When you reach my age (70) you pause occasionally to remember all the = folks that help you along the way. And you perhaps check out the obits = more often. Today two old friends of mine are in the Houston Chronicle's = obituaries. Tom Bullock and Joe Foy. Two great leaders in Houston's = civil and business history.=20

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I owe a lot to Joe Foy. He along with Fred Hofheinz helped guide me in = my employment for the past 30 some years. Hofheinz was Mayor of = Houston from 1974 to 1978 and I served as his Executive Assistant in the = Mayor's office for two years, 1974-1976. It was a great time to be in = Houston and Fred Hofheinz did much to reform City Hall. And while I = served in the Mayor's office I met Joe Foy and Tom Bullock. Foy was = the President of Houston Natural Gas and Bullock was President of CRS, = an architectural firm. After two years I was ready to leave the Mayor's = office, as I had served as the lighten rod for the Mayor and some folks = thought I had caught enough bolts and it was time to leave. But I didn't = know what I wanted to do so I wrote Foy and Bullock asking for advice = (and a job if possible) Each answered my letter and Foy invited me to = have lunch with him. And that was the start of my career as a lobbyist = and political consultant. .

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Joe Foy hired me as his Assistant for Public Policy and soon sent me to = represent Houston Natural Gas with the Texas Legislature in Austin. = The issue that year was coal slurry pipelines. It was a major battle = with the railroads on laying a pipeline from Colorado to ship coal to = Texas. We won, but to this day no coal slurry pipeline was been built. = Then Foy sent me to Washington DC to lobby for a national energy plan = which would allow Texas Intrastate natural gas to be shipped out of = Texas but without federal control. We won and so for the next twenty = years I represented Houston Natural Gas, which became InterNorth, which = became Enron Corp. Foy stayed as President until 1985 and left to join = the law firm of Bracewell Patterson (now Bracewell & Giuliani). He = served on the Board of the various companies until the demise of Enron = in 2001. I often thought that if Joe Foy had stayed on as President = Enron would still be functioning today. He had taught Sunday school = and would not have put up with the fancy accounting that eventually = brought down the company.=20

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Joe Foy knew politics and enjoyed politicians. He was a great civic = leader and a very good lobbyist. His legal mind was very interesting to = watch and he could take complex legal ideas and make them easy to = understand. He had a lot to do assuring that the nation had sufficient = natural gas over the next twenty years and that industry owes him a lot. =

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And Joe liked good wine and introduced me to wine that was not from = Boones Farm.=20

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Joe and his wife Martha moved to Kerrville in the 1990's and the last = time I saw him was at a funeral for another old friend Scarcy Bracewell. = I will miss Tom and Joe and wonder what Houston would be like it the = two of them had not headed for the big city. =20

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