Paul Milton Bass Jr.

Paul M. Bass, Jr., of Dallas, Texas, passed away Tuesday, March 9, 2010, at the age of 74. Mr. Bass was vice chairman of First Southwest Co., an investment-banking firm based in Dallas, and served on the board of directors of First Southwest Asset Management Inc. He also served as director and member of the Audit Committee of Comp X International. He was born April 26, 1935, in Tyler, Texas, and after service in the Air Force, graduated in 1957 from Southern Methodist University with a Bachelor of Business Administration. In 2006 he received his alma mater’s Distinguished Alumni Award, the highest honor the university bestows upon its graduates. He also received the SMU Cox School of Business Distinguished Alumni Award. Mr. Bass’ passion was health care. Decades of volunteer service and his tireless commitment to improving health care in Dallas for all it citizens earned him the 2003 Linz Award, Texas’s oldest and most prestigious civic honor. In the 1980s he served as chairman of the Board of Managers of Parkland Memorial Hospital, returning it to greatness after a challenging period during the 1970s. After his six-year term on the Parkland board was up, he turned his attention to its sister institutions – UT Southwestern Medical Center, Zale Lipshy University Hospital, St. Paul Medical Center, Children’s Medical Center Dallas, Parkland Foundation and Southwestern Medical Foundation – serving in leadership capacities in each of these organizations, most recently as chairman of the board of Southwestern Medical Foundation from 1995 to 2008. He was instrumental in rescuing St. Paul (Dallas’ oldest hospital) from probable closure by assisting in the acquisition of the facility and its merger with Zale Lipshy under the UT Southwestern umbrella. In 1994 he received the Charles Cameron Sprague Community Service Award from Southwestern Medical Foundation, and UT Southwestern honored him in 2008 by renaming the newly acquired 24-acre Exchange park site the Paul M. Bass Administrative and Clinical Center. Mr. Bass also was a member of the Dallas Citizens Council and served as chairman of the Finance Committee of the State Fair of Texas and on the board of the Phoenix Houses of Texas. For 41 years, he was an active member of the Salesmanship Club of Dallas and served as its president from 1990 to 1991. Mr. Bass was honored with the 1995 Dallas-Fort Worth Hospital Council’s Distinguished Health Service Award, the 1999 Dallas Historical Society’s Award for Excellence in Health/Sciences, the 2000 Dallas County Medical Society Heath Award, the 2002 Phoenix House Award for Public Service, the 2006 Oak Cliff Lions Club Humanitarian Award, the 2007 Texas Association of Business – Distinguished Business Leader Award for the Dallas Chapter and the 2008 Senior Source’s Spirit of Generations Award. Mr. Bass is survived by his wife, Carla; his son, Paul M. Bass III and wife, Laura; his daughter, Catherine Bass Hawes, and husband, John M. Hawes III; John C. and Susan Rutledge, and Karen and Steave Wayman; and six grandchildren, Andrew Hawes, Betsy Hawes, Paul Bass IV, Chris Bass, Madeline Rutledge and John Rutledge, Jr. A service celebrating his life will be held at 2 p.m. Monday, March 15, at Highland Park United Methodist Church. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that memorials be made to The Paul Bass Fund, c/o Southwestern Medical Foundation, 2305 Cedar Springs Road, Suite 150, Dallas, TX 75201-7805. The Paul Bass Fund will support clinical cardiology in honor of Dr. John Warner and is designated for a new University Hospital or to The Salesmanship Club of Dallas, 400 S. Zang Blvd., PMB 77, Suite 700, Dallas, TX 75208-6642. The Pallbearers are: Mack Pogue, Harold Simmons, Jerry Ford, Hill Feinberg, Plack Carr, Buz Franklin, Huston Bell, Boone Pickens, Bruce Sifford, Luther King. Honorary Pallbearers: Salesmanship Club Past Presidents.