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Carol Stoner Vance, Jr., ’89, passed away at home on June 24, 2022. He was eighty-eight. Carol attended Texas A&M his freshman year, then transferred to The University of Texas where he received a BA and his law degree. At UT, Carol was on The University of Texas Ri- fle Team where his sharp-shooting earned him first place in the Southwest Conference. During law school Carol set his sights on and married Carolyn Kongabel. Carol served in the U.S. Army. He became an Assistant Dis- trict Attorney for Harris County in 1958, and was later appointed District Attorney at the age of thirty-two. He was elected to another four terms, never facing an op- ponent on the ballot. As DA, he personally prosecuted some twenty jury cases of historical significance in Hous- ton. Carol worked to pass many new laws, including the Texas Penal Code of 1974, which is still in effect today.
In 1979, Carol left public service for private practice. Carol served as Chairman of the Board of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, which oversees the Texas Prison System. As Chairman, Carol started the first Christian-based program in a U.S. prison. The prison, in Richmond, Texas, was renamed the Carol S. Vance Unit in 1997 and led to similar programs in other states. Carol preached regularly in the Harris County Jail and taught courses, did field evangelism and missionary trips to Malawi, Kenya, Brazil, Ar- gentina, Turkey, and Ecuador. Carol authored three books, including Boomtown D.A, which recounts his adventures as a DA, including brushes with the
Mafia, grisly murder cas- es, and the prosecution of a Texas Supreme Court Justice.
Carol is survived by Caro- lyn after sixty-eight years of marriage, his five children, fourteen grandchildren, and six great-grandchildren.
The Honorable Henry R. Wilhoit, Jr., ’80, passed on September 12, 2022 at the age of eighty-seven, survived by his childhood sweetheart Jane Horton (Huff) Wil- hoit, with whom he eloped over sixty-six years ago, three children, five grandchildren, and three great-grandchil- dren. Judge Wilhoit was a renowned storyteller and a natural public speaker. Just a few months after being sworn in as President of the Kentucky Bar Association in June of 1981, President Ronald Reagan appointed him to serve as a judge in the Eastern District of Ken- tucky, where he remained for over forty years. As he quipped, “Jane Horton married me for better or worse, but not for lunch, so I had to keep working.” Judge Wilhoit began practicing law in 1960 with his father and was the family’s fourth generation of trial lawyers dating back to 1867. All three of his children went into law, two of them judges, and three of his grandchildren have extended the family legacy to six generations of attorneys. The Judge had a booming operatic voice and proudly professed that he never needed a microphone when he sang at UK football games. He rarely missed a game and it was widely known that his court docket was generally scheduled around UK games.
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