Robert S. Calvert

Who was Robert S. Calvert?

Robert S. Calvert was the longest-serving Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts, having held that post from 1949 to 1975.

From 1909 to 1910, Calvert attended Baptist-affiliated Howard Payne Junior College in Brownwood, Texas.

In 1948, Calvert ran for the Democratic Party nomination to be Texas' Comptroller of Public Accounts. He was nominated, which in Texas in 1948 was tantamount to election. He served for twenty-six years.

When the African American then State Representative Eddie Bernice Johnson, later a member of the United States House of Representatives, filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in 1973, Calvert said in response, that Johnson was a "n*gger woman who doesn't know what she is talking about." The EEOC ruled that racial discrimination could be inferred based on Calvert's response.

In 1972, Randy Pendleton, a former legislator from Andrews in West Texas,and Jim Wilson, a former employee, ran against Calvert. There was a run-off between Calvert and Wilson, in which Calvert won.

In 1974, Bob Bullock announced that he would challenge the octogenarian comptroller and promised to reform operations of the office.