Thad Hutcheson

Thaddeus Thomson Hutcheson (October 29, 1915 – August 3, 1986), was a Republican attorney in his native Houston, who was an early figure in the movement to establish a competitive two-party system in the U.S. state of Texas. Background Born to a wealthy family, Hutcheson was the grandson of Joseph C. Hutcheson, a Virginia native who served from Houston as a Democrat in the Texas House of Representatives and the United States House of Representatives from 1893 to 1897 from Texas's 1st congressional district. Thad Hutcheson was the middle of three sons of the attorney William Palmer "Pam" Hutcheson, Sr. (1887-1966), and the former Eleanor Lee Thomson (1890-1961). His brothers were William Palmer Hutcheson, Jr. (1913-1990), and Edward Chappell Hutcheson (1920-1986). Like his father, Hutcheson was educated at the private boarding school, The Hill School in Pottstown in Montgomery County near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Hutcheson graduated in 1937 from Princeton University in Princeton, New Jersey. He received his legal education from the University of Texas School of Law at Austin. He was married to the former Caroline Brownlee (1917-1984), an Austin native and the couple had five children: Thaddeus T. Hutcheson, Jr. (born March 2, 1941), Houghton B. Hutcheson (born August 27, 1946), John Palmer Hutcheson and Thomas Taliaferro Hutcheson (twins born October 14, 1948), and Lucy Hutcheson Barrow (born October 20, 1959.) Following service in the U.S. Navy in World War II as a Lieutenant Commander assigned to the Destroyer Escort U.S.S. Swasey, Hutcheson entered the practice of law in Houston with his father, older brother, Palmer Hutcheson, Jr., and cousin, Thomas Taliaferro. The firm was known at its founding as Hutcheson, Taliaferro & Hutcheson, and was subsequently known as Hutcheson and Grundy. Political life