Bureau Alumni of the Year: Peter T. Flawn

Among his other efforts, Flawn maintained an interest in economic geology, mineral resources, policy, and environmental geology. He had a good background in geology but was largely self-taught in the business aspects of mining engineering and mineral property evaluation. Opportunities for geological consulting work led Flawn to build his own library of reference materials in this area and to develop his expertise.

Flawn was named director of the Bureau in 1960 and spent the next decade building the Bureau’s research program and forging alliances with the Department of Geological Sciences, with professional societies, with industry, and with the public and policy makers, all of which he considered essential to the success of the Bureau. At age 34, he was young to take on this responsibility but approached it as a scientist solving a problem. In reflecting on his decision years later he articulated what he considered the essential requirements for good management: “little more than good common sense, treating people the way you would like to be treated, staying ahead of the paperwork, and developing a vision of what your organization should be and where it should go.”

This attitude and a decade of hard work putting it into practice would launch Flawn’s career in administration. And it would not be the last time Flawn was tapped to guide the vision of an institution needing a strong leader.

Flawn left the Bureau in 1970 to accept the position of Vice President for Academic Affairs and Executive Vice President at The University of Texas at Austin. In 1973 he became president of The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA), a position he held until 1978. He helped UTSA achieve full accreditation for graduation programs by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. During his tenure the newly constructed campus in northwest San Antonio opened and enrollment grew to support five colleges.

Flawn served as president of The University of Texas at Austin from 1979 to 1985. He was asked again to fill this role ad interim from 1997 to 1998. Flawn was president of UT Austin when the Department of Energy began planning to fund the next generation of accelerator physics through a national competition for construction of the superconducting super collider (SSC). He collaborated with other university presidents in forming a consortium to support the Texas effort.

Later, when Flawn was president emeritus of UT Austin, Governor Bill Clements needed a proven administrator to chair the state’s National Research Laboratory Commission in the effort to win the bid to build the SSC in Texas. He turned to Flawn in 1987, authorizing him to “leave no stone unturned,” in preparing the proposals—this to a geologist. Flawn delivered. The Dallas/Fort Worth site was named the official site for the project in 1989. Despite the project’s later demise in Congress, Texas emerged as a powerful contender in scientific research and applications.

In a more recent endeavor, Flawn served as chair of the Vision Committee set up to advise the administration on the best structure for the newly created John A. and Katherine G. Jackson School of Geosciences.

In 1974 Flawn was elected to the National Academy of Engineering, and in 1995 he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Science from Oberlin College. Flawn received the Distinguished Service Award in 1998 from the Texas Exes, a special award created to honor individuals who were not themselves students at The University of Texas at Austin but who made profound and positive contributions to The University through their service. Flawn also received the Public Service Award in 2007 from the American Association of Petroleum Geologists.

Flawn received the Santa Rita Award—the highest award bestowed by the Board of Regents of The University of Texas System—in 2000. The award derives its name from Santa Rita No. 1, the discovery well on University Lands in West Texas that heralded the oil boom in the Permian Basin, a fitting echo of Flawn’s roots in geology and the prolific career that followed.

To read more about Flawn’s term as Bureau director, see his profile (Peter T. Flawn) under the Bureau of Economic Geology Directors. See also Flawn’s autobiographical account of his tenure at the Bureau, Texas Geologist and the Bureau of Economic Geology, 1949–1970, published by the Bureau in 2002.