Joe R. Long

Joe Richard Long worked hard nearly his entire life and found success beyond his expectations. He took advantage of this success by traveling the world, collecting art, and giving to educational and other charitable causes. Joe left this world Wednesday, October 7, 2026, at the age of 96 to rejoin his beloved wife, Teresa Lozano Long. Even at the age of 96, if you asked Joe what he liked to do with his time, he would tell you that he was still working to make money.

Joe was born in San Antonio in 1930. He lived in small Texas communities including Sonora and Oakwood before settling down in Centerville, where he graduated high school as valedictorian. His childhood was shaped by the hardship his family faced when his father fell from a power line pole, broke his back, and was bedridden for a number of years. Joe got his first job at the age of 13, delivering newspapers. At 15, he became a soda jerk at the local pharmacy where he discovered his love of vanilla ice cream.

During high school, Joe participated in UIL Art Memory competitions. It was through these events that Joe first learned about world-famous paintings and sculptures, and the artists behind them. This fostered his love of art and later led him to collect a variety of art, with a focus on Impressionist and Post-Impressionist painting.

Joe graduated high school at the age of 17 and attended Tarleton State University, then known as John Tarleton Agricultural College, a two-year college. He credited Tarleton with laying a solid foundation for his higher education. Joe participated in ROTC and worked a variety of jobs to help finance his college education. One of Joe’s professors took a group of students to see an opera in Fort Worth. The production moved Joe greatly and established the basis of his love of classical music and operas. Later in life, Joe traveled to attend operas and symphonies all over Europe.

After Tarleton, Joe continued his education at The University of Texas at Austin, earning a bachelor’s degree in government with a minor in history and anthropology. Upon graduating in 1951, Joe was immediately called into military service due to the Korean War. He entered military service as a Second Lieutenant in the military police and served two years in the Army, with 18 months in Europe attached to the 7th Army Military Police Battalion in Stuttgart, Germany. It was his duty station in Germany that opened Joe’s eyes to the rest of the world. While stationed there, he traveled when on leave, exploring Germany’s countryside and visiting Paris and Amsterdam. Traveling would become a passion for Joe. He and his wife visited more than 150 countries and every continent.

Joe was honorably discharged from the U.S. Army in August of 1953 with the rank of First Lieutenant. After working for a year as a salesman with National Cash Register Company and Bauer and Black, a maker of bandages and adhesive tape, Joe took a high school teaching position in Alice, Texas. While in Alice, Joe taught civics and history, and coached the Debate team. Though he only taught school in Alice for one year, it was a year that would forever change his life. It was in Alice, Texas, that Joe met his wife-to-be, Teresa Lozano.

While Joe and Teresa met in 1955 when they were both teaching in Alice, they did not start dating until the end of the school year, at which time they had both decided to return to the University of Texas at Austin to continue their educations. In 1956, Joe entered law school, and Teresa entered the doctorate program. They continued dating while each pursued their advanced education.

1958 was a great year for the Longs. On February 5, 1958, Joe and Teresa married and began their partnership through life. In August of 1958, Joe graduated from the University of Texas School of Law with a Doctorate of Jurisprudence and obtained his license to practice law in the state of Texas shortly thereafter.

In September 1958, Joe was employed by the State Securities Board as an attorney, investigating and prosecuting securities fraud throughout the state of Texas. He successfully participated in the first criminal prosecution under the new securities law in 1959. Joe was made Chief of the Enforcement Division of the State Securities Board in that same year.

In February of 1961, Joe left the State Securities Board to help his wife’s family. Teresa’s father was ill, and Joe and Teresa moved to Premont, Texas, to operate her family’s ranching, farming and dairy business. By the end of 1962, Teresa’s father had recovered enough to resume control of his ranch, so on January 1, 1963, Joe took a job as an Assistant Attorney General in the Bond, Insurance, and Banking Division of the Office of the Attorney General. In 1964, he was made Chief of the Bond, Banking and Insurance Division. During his tenure in the Office of the Attorney General, he participated in numerous trials and in numerous appellate cases principally in the area of banking and savings & loans.

In May of 1965, experienced from the Securities Board and the Attorney General’s Office, Joe launched his private practice, specializing in Administrative Law with a focus on banking and savings & loan law. For the first two years, Joe was a sole practitioner. Thereafter, he was a member of several partnerships until he ultimately organized his own law firm. Joe continued his specialized law practice until 1988, handling trial and appellate work in the area of banking and savings & loan law, as well as representing clients before the various regulatory bodies governing banks and savings & loans.

As Joe’s legal practice became more financially successful, he became involved in real estate, oil and gas, banking, and stocks and bonds. It was in banking where he achieved the most success. While practicing law, Joe acquired a small interest in two banks that he helped establish. Over the next 25 years, he continued to buy shares until his ownership interest in these banks increased from 17% to more than 94%.

Under Joe and Teresa’s guidance, each bank was conservatively and carefully managed. Sacrificing rapid growth opportunities for stability with greater profitability, these two banks were prepared for the disastrous downturn of the economy that struck Texas in the mid 1980's.

In 1988, with the advent of branch banking in Texas, along with an unprecedented period of economic upheaval, the two banks in which Joe and Teresa were principals were able to acquire seven other banks which had failed in the Austin area and were under the control of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). All nine banks combined on November 1, 1989, under the name First State Bank of Austin. Joe Long served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of First State Bank from November 1, 1989, to August 31, 1998, when the bank was sold to Norwest Corporation. At the time of the sale, First State Bank of Austin had a total of 45 branches.

During the period while Joe was building his legal practice and they were building their banking business, Joe and Teresa started traveling internationally, collecting fine art, becoming involved in the performing arts in the Austin community, and pursuing philanthropic endeavors. After the sale of First State Bank of Austin, Joe finally lessened his workload but continued to manage their investments until he passed.

Joe was President of The Austin Symphony Orchestra Society, Inc., while Teresa was a long-time board member of Austin Ballet, and they both helped found the Austin Lyric Opera Company. Joe’s excitement for symphonic music goes back to a concert he watched at the University of Texas at Austin in 1950. The conductor was Arturo Toscanini conducting the New York Philharmonic, and the performance was held in the University’s gymnasium.

Around 2000, the Austin Symphony, Ballet and Opera needed a new location to perform due to upcoming scheduling conflicts with the University of Texas’ Bass Concert Hall. To help lead the way in financing a new multi-venue performing arts center in Austin, Joe and Teresa made a substantial donation to what would become the Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long Center for the Performing Arts (The Long Center). Before The Long Center was built, another economic downturn stalled fundraising efforts. To help restart the effort, Joe became president and, with the help of others involved, got The Long Center completed. It opened to the public in 2008 and continues to serve Austin as a world-class performing arts venue.

While the Longs’ love for the arts commanded a lot of their time and attention, their community activities were dispersed across a range of interests, including education, health, and other social groups. They were involved with many non-profit organizations, both giving their time, their knowledge, and their financial support.

Providing opportunities for students was one of their greatest joys. Having no children themselves, they sought to make the children of Texas theirs, providing a variety of educational opportunities around the state. They endowed scholarship funds with many universities, including The University of Texas at Austin, The University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio, Tarleton State University, Austin College, The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, The Bush School of Government & Public Service at Texas A&M University, the Texas Interscholastic League Foundation, and others.

Joe believed the US was an amazing country that offered unlimited opportunity to people of limited means and humble backgrounds. It takes persistence and hard work, but it is possible for all. He often stated, “Upward economic mobility can be achieved through education.”

Joe Richard Long is predeceased by his parents Walter R. Long, Sr. and Reba Cundiff Long; his brother Walter R. Long, Jr. and wife Carolyn Waller Long; and his beloved wife Teresa Lozano Long. Joe was survived by his niece Lyndal (Long) Wiatrek and husband Edwin; nephews Walter R. Long, III and wife Carolyn, Mitchell A. Long and wife Lu Ann, along with various cousins and many great- and great-great-nieces and nephews. Other special people in Joe’s life are Ulises and Betty Perez and their children Gael, Alan and Aranza; and Vivian and Brian Piper.

A visitation and rosary will be held at Weed Corley Fish Funeral Home located at 5416 Parkcrest Dr., Austin, Texas on October 19, 2026 at 6pm.

A graveside service will be held at Cook-Walden Capital Parks Cemetery located at 14501 N. Interstate Hwy 35, Pflugerville, Texas on October 20, 2026 at 1:30pm.

In lieu of flowers, Joe requests donations be made to The Long Center, Caritas of Austin, Safe Alliance of Austin, Texas Interscholastic League Foundation, any legal aid program, or any other charity of the donor’s choice.