Oatman Hill Foundation donates $5M to St. Mary’s Law

St. Mary’s University today announced a $5 million gift to its School of Law from the Oatman Hill Foundation, which was created by the estate of law alumnus Bennie Walter Bock II. The transformational gift will allow the School of Law’s education in the intersection of business and the law to flourish to an unprecedented level for future generations of students through the creation of the Bennie W. Bock II Center for Business and Transaction Law at St. Mary’s.

A well-rounded understanding of business and the law has enabled St. Mary’s Law alumni to enjoy successful careers armed with the ability to manage their own private practices. Other graduates have chosen to work in transactional and business law for private, public and governmental entities. 

“St. Mary’s University is incredibly grateful for the generosity of the Oatman Hill Foundation and the lasting legacy of Bennie Walter Bock II for enriching the educational pathways of our School of Law students,” said St. Mary’s University President Winston Erevelles, Ph.D. “By creating the new Bennie W. Bock II Center for Business and Transaction Law, this gift will elevate the study of business law in our region through the many careers it will inspire.”

Before his death in 2022 at the age of 80, Bock, a 1968 graduate of the School of Law and a longtime New Braunfels resident, was in discussions with the University about a gift to create a new center for business and transactional law.

The $5 million gift from the Oatman Hill Foundation establishes the Bennie W. Bock II Center for Business and Transaction Law at St. Mary’s, which includes a program fund, an endowed professorship and a student support fund.

Bock, a seventh-generation Texan, was a public servant, businessman, attorney and rancher. Born in Lockhart, his family moved to New Braunfels when he was 3. He earned his B.B.A. from the University of Texas at Austin and his J.D. at St. Mary’s Law.

For 10 years, he served as a Texas State Representative for Comal, Guadalupe and Caldwell counties. After his tenure in the Legislature, Bock lobbied on behalf of farmers and ranchers, raised and showed cutting horses and racehorses, owned and operated many businesses, including an automobile dealership and a radio station, and continued to practice law.

“St. Mary’s University is incredibly grateful for the generosity of the Oatman Hill Foundation and the lasting legacy of Bennie Walter Bock II for enriching the educational pathways of our School of Law students. By creating the new Bennie W. Bock II Center for Business and Transaction Law, this gift will elevate the study of business law in our region through the many careers it will inspire.”

— St. Mary’s University President Winston Erevelles, Ph.D.

The Hon. William D. Old III, J.D., of the 25th Judicial District of Texas, serves as director of the Oatman Hill Foundation. Old said Bock created the foundation to support education and the arts.

“St. Mary’s is the perfect vehicle, and the new center is the perfect avenue for advancing education in business and the law,” Old said. “Bennie found a home at St. Mary’s School of Law. He was proud to be a St. Mary’s graduate.”

Through the gift, Old said Bock’s legacy “can address the need to educate law students who will serve their community either by assisting businesses or having their own business; not all students are meant to be litigators.”

Suzanne Bock Badger, Bock’s daughter, said the gift is a legacy that supports her father’s interest in innovations in the law.

“Dad was a visionary who believed in using the resources that God gives you not only to better yourself but to help others,” she said. “Dad was very passionate about helping people in the community who needed it.”

School of Law Dean Patricia Roberts, J.D., said this gift will be transformative not only because of its size but because of its focus on business and transactional law, an area of legal education with significant existing faculty expertise to build on in response to the growing student interest.

“Mr. Bock’s legacy will educate generations of law students who will become leaders in their communities and in the businesses of tomorrow,” Roberts said.

With $2 million of the gift, the Bennie W. Bock II Center for Business and Transaction Law fund will be created with the goal of developing opportunities for students to learn how to successfully navigate the legal and business worlds with a focus on ensuring that law graduates are prepared for the business acumen needed for the rapidly changing field of law practice. Initial center activities are projected to begin in the Fall 2025 semester.

“The center will offer us the opportunity to have an umbrella for all business law activities that we are already engaged in and will be a place where our new transactional law clinic can be housed,” Roberts said. “The future of business and law can be explored through the center with burgeoning technological advances in both fields. Students who are more interested in transactional work than litigation will now have one place to explore their interest.”

The center will house a business transactions clinic and other initiatives that may include curriculum, programming and experiential learning opportunities for students. The clinic will serve businesses and entrepreneurs while providing transactional training for law students. It also will support interdisciplinary initiatives involving faculty and students from other academic schools. 

The gift designates $1 million to create the Bennie W. Bock II Professorship to fund the center’s leadership.

“The endowed professorship will provide a talented business law leader the opportunity to direct the center and determine strategic plans to meet the needs of the University, law school and future students,” she said.

Lastly, $2 million will establish the Bennie W. Bock II Student Fund, an endowed fund to support student participation in the new center. This will support Bock Scholars, talented School of Law students interested in business and entrepreneurship, with scholarships or learning opportunities outside the classroom.

“This final allocation of the gift will support student initiatives and activities that are important to the center, including interdisciplinary student opportunities across the University,” Roberts added.