The Long Center for the Performing Arts is named for Teresa Lozano Long and her husband, Joe Long, seen here in 2008 at the Long Center opening. “There was nothing like it in Austin,” Joe Long said about the venue. “And from the beginning, it was about welcoming the community and showcasing the arts.”
Larry Kolvoord/Austin American-Statesman
Joe Long, who, along with his distinguished wife, Teresa Lozano Long, promoted the causes of health science, education and the arts in Texas, died Wednesday at age 96.
A lawyer and philanthropist, he was the co-namesake of the Long Center for the Performing Arts in Austin, along with his wife, and the Long School of Medicine at UT Health San Antonio. The couple’s gift to the Long Center, which Joe Long helped steer through a rocky beginning, was more than $20 million. Their donation to the school of medicine was more than $25 million.
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Their total gifts to Texas nonprofits and universities topped $150 million.
Through the Long Foundation, the couple established a $10 million permanent fund for scholarships for Hispanic students across the state. They said they loved hearing from youths in “teeny-tiny” towns who would not be able to attend college otherwise.
From the moment they met in Alice in 1958, they appeared to be a matched pair. Although the couple came from little money and rural backgrounds, later profits made in the legal and banking fields eventually allowed them to be generous.
Teresa Long, who was born in Premont, Texas, died in 2021.
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Teresa and Joe Long at the Gala del Museo: Arte y Glamour benefiting the Mexic-Arte Museum. The Longs collected museum-quality art, but they broke up the collection when they downsized their living arrangements.
Austin American-Statesman
“I know there will be an enormous outpouring of gratitude from various organizations and people in the coming days,” said concert pianist Anton Nel, a close friend of the couple, on Thursday. “They were so much fun to be with and enjoyed nothing more than to be ‘normal’ people out of the spotlight. Their generosity enabled hundreds of young people — including many of my current students — to have an education. After Terry’s passing in 2021, a group of us continued to take Joe out regularly. An incredible person who will be much missed.”
Joe Long was born Jan. 13, 1930, in San Antonio. He moved to Leon County in East Texas during his childhood, served in the Korean War, and later attended law school at the University of Texas. As a lawyer, he worked with the State Securities Board, the attorney general’s office, and he founded his own law firm. He was part of a group that organized two banks in Austin, First State Bank and Community National Bank, which was later sold to Norwest Corp., now Wells Fargo.
Among his many community leadership roles, Joe Long served as president of the Austin Symphony Orchestra. He was a member of the board of directors of the Headliners Club, Caritas of Austin, Arts Center Stage and The Seton Fund. In 2005, Joe and Teresa Long were honored jointly as arts patrons with the Texas Medal of the Arts from the Texas Cultural Trust.
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On March 12, 2021, a fire destroyed much of the former Long Estate mansion in the Old Enfield neighborhood of Austin. The Longs, who spent years remodeling the 1940 house, had previously sold their museum-quality art collection and had moved into a Central Austin retirement community in 2019.
Left to right, UT President Bill Powers, Teresa Lozano Long and her husband, Joe Long, attend the unveiling of plaques in honor of Teresa Lozano Long and Nettie Lee Benson at LLILAS Benson Latin American Studies and Collections on Friday, March 6, 2015. The plaques pay tribute to the Longs, who endowed the Institute of Latin American Studies, and to Benson, who served as director for 30 years of the collection that now bears her name.
Austin American-Statesman
Joe and Teresa Long made a profound impact, however, far beyond Austin. They donated to programs all over the state, especially those related to their alma mater, the University of Texas, and the UT System.
The medical school in San Antonio was one of their passions.
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“South Texas, where I grew up, did not have many doctors,” Teresa Long said in 2019. “If my mother got sick, my father took her to San Antonio. This was before air-conditioned cars, so we got up very early in the morning to sit in the waiting room. There were no telephones where we lived.”
“The Santa Rita Award, the Board of Regents’ highest honor bestowed on private citizens, is presented rarely — only 28 times since its inception 58 years ago — and only to those who have the most immeasurable and remarkable impact on UT institutions,” said James B. Milliken, chancellor of the UT System at the time that Teresa Lozano Long died. “That Teresa, along with her husband, Joe, were selected for this unique and esteemed award, speaks to their extraordinary generosity, their love of UT and their unfettered desire to make Texas a better place through culture, health care and education.”
“Terry and Joe — it’s hard to say Terry without saying Joe — were such extraordinary partners in everything they did in life,” said Randa Safady, vice chancellor of external relations, communications and advancement services for the UT System in 2021. “They had the perfect love story. They made Texas look like what they thought it should look like by giving young people the opportunity to be the best they could be. She gave him the best life imaginable; he gave her the best life imaginable; and together they gave the people of Texas the best lives imaginable.”
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Plans for a memorial service have not been announced.
This is a breaking news story. Check back later for updates.