Prominent Bryan native John Michael Lawrence III dies at 92

Sept. 12--A prominent Bryan lawyer and former president of the State Bar Association passed away this month nine days before his 93rd birthday.

John Michael Lawrence III, a Bryan native and graduate of Texas A&M University and the University of Texas Law School, returned to Bryan to start his law firm, which later became Lawrence, Thornton, Payne & Watson. He was admitted to the Bar in 1948.

During World War II, Lawrence served as a U.S. Army field artillery captain in the Pacific and Philippine campaigns, and sat as a judge during the Yokohoma war crime trials, according to the state bar association.

The Bryan trial lawyer was well-known across the state, according to some of his past colleagues, and he was a fourth- or fifth-generation Bryan resident, according to his daughter Ann Lawrence. His father was the owner of a local bank, and his great-grandfather served as an early mayor of Bryan, she said.

During his career, Lawrence served as a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, president of the Texas Association of Defense Counsel, and president of the Brazos County Bar Association. He was a member of the American Bar Association, the Federation of Insurance Counsel, and the International Association of Insurance Counsel.

Lawrence was elected chairman of the Board of Directors of the State Bar, and served as the president for the 1975-76 fiscal year, according to the bar association.

He was a founding board member of KBTX-TV, which launched in 1957, said Mike Wright, the general manager of the station. Today in the KBTX offices, a photo shows Lawrence front and center at the 50th reunion of the news station back in 2007.

"We always wanted him to know that he was part of our family," Wright said. "We would invite him to come up whenever he wanted, he knew that the door was always open to go wherever he wanted to, because frankly without him, there is no us."

Aside from professional accomplishments, he taught the men's Bible class for 25 years at the First Methodist Church of Bryan. Lawrence also served as a director of the Bryan-College Station Chamber of Commerce, president of the Bryan Junior Chamber of Commerce, and was a founding member of the Boys and Girls Club of the Brazos Valley.

Lewis Newman, Jay Don Watson and Bill Payne served as pallbearers at Lawrence's funeral at First United Methodist Church. Payne joined Lawrence's law firm in 1965 and worked alongside him until Lawrence's retirement in the late 1980s.</p>

He described Lawrence as a quality man and said it was an honor to work with him for years.

"A professional partnership is in many respects like a marriage, in regard to having a good partner is just like having a good wife," Payne said. "We were very blessed to get along well with one another and enjoyed every year of the practice that we were together."

Watson, now a lawyer in College Station at Watson Law Firm, joined Lawrence's firm in 1969. He joined straight out of law school. Lawrence, he said, was a great lawyer and an even better individual.

"He could be tough in the courtroom, but he was always a gentleman, he always treated everyone fairly," he said.

Each of Lawrence's former colleagues described him as an honorable man. According to an article in The Eagle's archives, Lawrence said he would emphasize the disciplining of Texas lawyers who violated laws or the bar's code of ethics while he was president of the state bar association.

Lewis Newman, the owner of Newman Printing Company in Bryan, met Lawrence when he was around 12. He grew up next to Lawrence's son and daughter, and said their two families were close friends.

"I knew him as a family friend and someone I looked up to all my life," he said. "He was a mentor to me and an inspirational local leader."

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