Prominent Fort Worth attorney Rice Tilley dies from COVID-19 complications
.JPG "Sandra, left, and Rice Tilley at the black tie gala celebrating the USS Fort Worth in Galveston, Texas, Friday, Sept. 21, 2012.")
Longtime Fort Worth booster and attorney Rice M. Tilley Jr. died Wednesday after a battle with the novel coronavirus.
He was 84.
Tilley had a “true love” for Fort Worth, his daughter Marisa Hammond said. After a stint in the U.S. Army in Germany, Tilley returned to Texas in 1964 to start his law career and quickly became involved in Fort Worth society. Over the years he worked with many foundations.
“I think he would want his legacy, besides his work, to be that he loved Fort Worth,” Hammond said.
Tilley was known for his large persona and love for storytelling, a trait that was admired both professionally as an attorney and among friends.
Hammond laughed as she recalled how Tilley enjoyed telling friends and family about breaking his leg in a football game against a rival school. Later he admitted the injury happened outside the game, possibly at a junior varsity practice, Hammond said, adding to the story’s charm.
“He loved a big story,” she said. “He loved to joke ... some of them were good.”
Wes Turner, a former publisher of the Star-Telegram, described Tilley as one the wittiest and funniest people in town. Tilley was also well-read and well-versed in current events, particularly Republican politics.
“Rice was razor sharp,” he said.
Tilley was born June 21, 1936, in Fort Worth. Funeral arrangements are pending.
Tilley’s law career lasted a half century. In 2014, he retired from the Haynes and Boone Law Firm and received the Lifetime Achievement Award from Texas A&M University School of Law, according to an obituary Tilley wrote himself.
He was considered an expert in taxation and estate planning.
Fort Worth lawyer Dee Kelly Jr. said he had known Tilley most of his life as Tilley and Kelly’s father worked together when Fort Worth’s legal scene was much smaller.
Kelly said he grew to know Tilley better as he followed his father into law and described him as a “big personality” with an energy that carried with him inside and outside legal hearings.
“Rice was all over the place, effervescent,” he said. “I liked him a lot.”
Tilley had law degrees from Southern Methodist University and New York University. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Washington & Lee in Lexington, Virginia.
Outside of work, Tilley spent much of his time at Eagle Mountain Lake and could often be found water skiing, Hammond said. He was eager to have others on the water with him, she said, joking that Tilley “must have taught half of Fort Worth how to ski.”
He was also a man of conviction, she said, describing him as “a pit bull.”
“When he dug his heels in, he really dug his heels in,” she said. “In the courtroom and in any personal opinion that he had, he was firm and committed.”
Bill Kraftson of Search Fort Worth ministries said Tilley had long been more of a skeptic than a true believer. But gradually his faith “transitioned from curious to convinced to committed.”
“Those who knew Rice best celebrate his change from an arms-length truce with God to a deep and personal relationship with Him through Jesus Christ,” he said. “He came to realize that in spite of his many great accomplishments in life, his greatest blessings came from God.“
Tilley was heavily involved in “all aspects of the city” and in some of Fort Worth’s most well-known institutions, Turner said.
For 30 years he served on the Board of Trustees for Texas Wesleyan University and for six years on the Board of Regents for the University of North Texas.
He served as president of the Fort Worth Opera Association, Casa Mañana Musicals, and on the boards of directors for the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra and the Van Cliburn Foundation. He was also the Van Cliburn Foundation’s attorney.
He held a two-year term as chairman of the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce and for several decades was chairman emeritus of Leadership Fort Worth.
He is survived by the “love of his life and soul-mate” Sandra Cooper Tilley. The couple was married 26 years.
He had four children: Hammond, Angela Crates, Lisa Anderson, and Matt Tilley; and two stepchildren: Kelli Dent York and Andrew Dent. Tilley also had 17 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
This story was originally published October 29, 2020 at 10:50 AM.
