WENTWORTH, EARL JEFFREY (1940 - ). The following is a biography for former Texas State Senator Jeff Wentworth. The biography was provided by Senator Wentworth.
SENATOR JEFF WENTWORTH
Senator Jeff Wentworth, a fourth generation Texan, served over 40 years in elected public office, after having been elected a Bexar County Commissioner twice, a member of the Texas House of Representatives three times, a member of the Texas Senate seven times, and a judge twice.
A graduate of Texas A&M University, he served as a senior class officer, judge on senior court and cadet chaplain of the Fightin' Texas Aggie Band. While a law student at Texas Tech University School of Law, he served both as president of the Student Bar Association and national president of the American Bar Association Law Student Division.
While in law school, he worked as a general assignments reporter for the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal and as a law student intern for the Lubbock County Attorney.
In 2000, he was named the Distinguished Alumnus of the Texas Tech University School of Law for that year. He is currently an emeritus trustee of the Texas Tech Law School Foundation.
When first elected as a Bexar County commissioner in 1976, there were a total of 38 elected officials in the Bexar County Courthouse; the other 37 were all Democrats. Wentworth, a Republican, followed in his father’s footsteps and devoted many years to building a competitive two-party system. While a county commissioner, at the invitation of Governor Bill Clements, Wentworth recommended the lawyers from Bexar County who were then nominated by the governor to be state district judges, including Ed Prado, Roy Barrera, Jr., Tom Rickhoff, David Peeples, David Berchelmann, Mike Peden and Sid Harle, as well as John Clark and Shirley Butt as justices on the Fourth Court of Appeals.
During his 20 years in the Texas Senate, he represented 21 counties and more than one million Texans in the Texas Legislature and was regularly elected to the Senate with more votes cast for him than any other member of the Senate. While in the Senate, he chaired several special and standing committees, including the Senate Committee on Jurisprudence, Senate Committee on Redistricting, Senate Committee on Nominations and Senate Committee on Open Government. He authored or co-authored 565 bills that were passed and signed into law. In addition, he served as President Pro Tem of the Texas Senate from 2004-2005 and twice served as Acting Governor of Texas during that period.
While in the Texas Senate, Wentworth was the undisputed leader in matters regarding open government and public information, opening up public meetings and public records for all Texans. In addition, he authored the co-called “castle doctrine” bill which allows Texans to defend themselves and protect their families in their homes, motor vehicles and places of business with no duty to retreat in the face of criminal attack. And he authored the bill that requires every public school student in Texas to say the pledge to both the United States and Texas flags daily and to have 60 seconds of silence for reflection, meditation or prayer in school every day in every public school in the state. And he was named the father of the TEXAS grant program which was finally passed after working on it for four regular sessions of the Legislature that has helped hundreds of thousands of Texas college students with over two billion dollars in assistance with their tuition and required fees.
During his time in the Texas Senate, Wentworth served on the national executive committee of the Council of State Governments (CSG) as well as chair of the CSG's 16-state Southern Legis- lative Conference and chair of CSG’s 21st Century Foundation. He also served as chair of the Texas Legislative Conference in 2010-2012. He was also a member of the Texas Judicial Council for six years as well as a trustee of the American Council of Young Political Leaders.
Senator Wentworth also served as a US Army counterintelligence officer, legislative assistant to a Republican US Congressman from Texas, city attorney and member of the Board of Regents of the Texas State University System.
Among his younger life experience, he worked as a newspaper boy, TV station copy boy, library clerk, dishwasher, waiter and taxicab driver.
A former director of the Rotary Club of San Antonio and a Paul Harris Fellow, he is also a former trustee of the World Affairs Council of San Antonio as well as a life member of the San Antonio Livestock Exposition, a life member of the San Antonio Gun Club, a benefactor member of the Texas State Rifle Association, a former advisory director of Boysville, a former director of the United Way of San Antonio and Bexar County, and a member of the Quillin Society of the Witte Museum. He is also a former director of the San Antonio A&M Club, a former councilman-at-large and an Endowed Diamond Century Club member of the Association of Former Students of Texas A&M University. In addition, he is a member of both the Alamo Chapter and the William Barret Travis Chapter of the Sons of the Republic of Texas, honorary member of the Alamo Mission Chapter of the Daughters of the Republic of Texas, the Conopus Club, San Antonio Polo Club and Club Giraud.
A third generation member of the First Church of Christ, Scientist of San Antonio, he is a former president and chairman of the board.
A Master Mason since 1962, he is a member of San Antonio Lodge No. 1079 AF&AM as well as the Alzafar Shrine Temple. He is a 33rd degree Mason and a member of the board of directors of the San Antonio Scottish Rite Library and Museum.
A licensed attorney for over fifty years, Senator Wentworth is admitted to practice law in both Texas and the District of Columbia and before the United States Supreme Court. A past president of the San Antonio Young Lawyers Association, he is a Sustaining Life Fellow of both the San Antonio Bar Foundation and the Texas Bar Foundation.
Married in 1981 to his wife, Karla, a professional interior designer who graduated cum laude from Trinity University, they are parents of two adult sons, Jason and Matthew, and grandparents of two grandsons, Warren and Wolfgang.
