Stanley Schoenbaum
June 11, 1925 – July 22, 2024
Stanley Schoenbaum died among his family in San Antonio, Texas on July 22, 2024, more than 99 years after his birth on June 11, 1925 in Richmond, Virginia. Stanley was predeceased by his beloved wife and best friend of 66 years, Virginia Whaley (Jennie) Schoenbaum, his parents, Esther (nee Schotz) and Morris Schoenbaum, and his younger brother, Morton Schoenbaum. Stanley is survived by his and Jennie’s children David, Alan (and wife Wendy Davis), Lisa Kerr (and husband Ted Kerr) and Ben (and wife Sheri), their grandchildren Alexander Schoenbaum, James Schoenbaum, William Kerr, Elizabeth Kerr, Savannah Schoenbaum, Paloma Schoenbaum and Kallie Schoenbaum, and their great grandchildren Samuel Schoenbaum, Avram Schoenbaum, Elliott Schoenbaum, Olivia Schoenbaum and Avery Schoenbaum. Stanley is also survived by his youngest brother, Paul Schoenbaum of Richmond, Virginia, and his first cousins on the Schotz side, Martin Schotz, Susan Schotz and Bennett Schotz and their families. The Schoenbaum family would like to recognize Esperanza Mata, a loyal and loving woman who took great care of Jennie and Stanley and their children for decades, and Stanley’s caregivers Alice Lopez, Teresa Rodriguez, Leondra White, Monica Mejia, Bertha Gonzales, and Dalys Castillo who treated Stanley with great affection during his last years.
Stanley was a gentleman in the purest sense of the word. His life was full and it was remarkable. An intellectual without pretentiousness, he inhaled history books and delved into theologies, amassing walls of bookshelves that became his library and which mapped his learning. Curiosity stoked his intelligence and spurred his education. He was not a dry man–far from it–though he sharpened conversations with a dry and clever sense of humor, often employed in his uncanny ability to comment on society’s successes and failures as well as the ironies of our world stage and its human actors. He relished stimulating conversations with family, friends and colleagues, especially when the topic involved social justice, politics (Jennie and Stanley were life-long Democrats), Judaism and sports. If the conversations happened to take place over lunch at his favorite table at Club Giraud or the Liberty Bar, so much the better. Stanley was also an accomplished gin player and played up until last week. He taught his grandchildren valuable lessons in card playing and life over the past many decades.
Stanley was generous. He lived his life for others. He supported many family members and friends over his long and productive life, and never expected anything in return. That was just who he was; he loved his family and friends, and he got a lot of love back in return.
Stanley’s life cannot be recounted or understood without Jennie. Stanley’s greatest love was Jennie. She was a force of nature, beautiful and brilliant and imbued with a powerful love of friends and family. Jennie and Stanley’s lives were an inseparable oneness. She cared for him through thick and thin; she created a beautiful life for Stanley. His world cracked when she left us. He longed for her every day, and each day he tried to conjure her into his memory.
Stanley knew how to keep a friend for life. He invested time and effort into his friendships, often by trading stories with his buddies Mendell Kaliff, Dick Landsman, J.Y. Golden, Melvin Lachman, Leo Rose, Bob Rosow, Maurice Braha, Tom Drought, Hugh Wolf and Bob Pincus, just to name a few; sadly, none are here to recount these times. Some of his favorite friends were his tennis doubles partners, like Red Shaw. Stanley played competitive tennis for many years until he was sidelined by a spinal tumor in 1978 at age 53. Despite this setback, Stanley did not let his back problems deter from continuing with his life of fullness. With Jennie’s inspiration and support, Stanley summoned his courage and called upon his inner resources and continued his driving work ethic, and ever-present sense of humor to overcome his adversity.
Stanley was funny. His brand of humor was legendary among his friends and family. The one-liners and puns could keep your head spinning for hours. And yet, Stanley could be deadly serious when required, especially when he was working.
Stanley was a phenomenal lawyer. Beloved by his clients and colleagues, Stanley was highly regarded for his powerful intelligence, encyclopedic knowledge of the law, and his genius in creating bullet-proof solutions for his many prominent and loyal clients. Stanley Schoenbaum was a lawyer’s lawyer, and the Texas legal community recognized him as a giant in the field of tax law. Incredibly, he practiced until the age of 89.
Stanley was a first generation American. His parents, Essie and Morris, were immigrants from Eastern Europe who came to the US in the early 1900s. Essie was a school teacher and Morris was a WWI veteran who served as a machine gunner in several campaigns in France. Morris later became a jeweler and business owner. Essie and Morris taught their first born son the value of education and hard work, which he clearly put to good use over his remarkable life.
Stanley was highly educated and a patriot. He graduated from Thomas Jefferson High School in Richmond, VA in June 1942. In 1943, at the tender age of 17, he volunteered to serve in the U.S. Navy during WWII and was admitted to the Naval Reserve Officer Training Program and received his commission as an ensign. Stanley served as a communications officer on the USS Nashville, a Brooklyn-class cruiser, from September 1945 to June 1946. After the war, he took advantage of the GI Bill and graduated from the University of Richmond in 1947. Stanley later attended the University of Virginia Law School and earned his law degree in 1949. He wisely decided to become a tax lawyer, and entered the elite tax program at New York University Law School, where he acquired his LLM (Masters of Law) in Taxation. Stanley served in the Department of the Treasury’s chief counsel’s office of the IRS in Washington, D.C. where he worked until 1958. He was assigned to trial work in Atlanta, Georgia, where he met Jennie. Stanley and Jennie were married on Halloween in 1954.
Stanley’s legal career in San Antonio is legendary. In early 1958, Stanley was recruited to move to San Antonio to join the law firm of John Peace, the famous trial lawyer, political boss and UTSA founder. Mr. Peace needed a tax lawyer to help him try several tax cases, and he asked his friend and ally Lyndon Johnson, who was Senate Majority Leader at the time, to find one. LBJ’s chief of staff identified Stanley as a prospect, and not long thereafter Jennie and Stanley headed to San Antonio with babies David and Alan in tow. After his stint with John Peace, Stanley went out on his own. After several years as a solo practitioner ensconced in the Alamo National Building, he formed a law partnership with two brilliant tax lawyers, Jim Curphy and Bill Scanlan. Their law firm was, and remains, Schoenbaum, Curphy & Scanlan. Stanley’s family would like to recognize Jim, Bill, Al Holcomb and Banks Smith for their incredible loyalty and friendship. They and the many other lawyers and support staff at the firm played an enormous part in Stanley’s success.
Stanley taught his law partners and associates many things about law and life over the years. He was a natural teacher, and was constantly sharing his wisdom with others. Stanley was adjunct professor of Tax Law at St. Mary’s University School of Law from 1958 to 1973 where he taught tax law to literally hundreds of law students. In 1968, he was honored to be selected as chairman of the Tax Section of the State Bar of Texas. Stanley was also an active real estate investor, partnering with long-time friends Dan Hanke and the late Robert Rosow. He had a gift for finding raw land with high potential. Structuring real estate deals became an important part of Stanley’s professional life, and kept him engaged long past his retirement. Stanley and Jennie were also original limited partners of the San Antonio Spurs, which gave the two of them great joy for decades. Indeed, just three days before his death, Stanley called Alan and asked him to place a bet on the Spurs to win it all.
Like so many successful San Antonians of his era, Stanley understood the importance of community service and philanthropy. According to his good friend, the late Tom Frost, who in 2010 presented Stanley with the Planned Giving Council of San Antonio Lifetime Leadership Award, Stanley had virtue, with a core of underlying values that contributed to his system of beliefs, ideas and opinions. He gave back to the community his entire life and counseled others to do the same. He and Jennie were members of Temple Beth El since the 1950s, and Stanley served on the development board of the University of Texas San Antonio. He was a founder and chairman of UTSA’s planned giving committee for many years. Stanley also served on the development board of St. Luke’s Baptist Hospital System for several years. During his final years, Stanley continued with his charitable projects. In April 2023, at the age of 97, he led a project to bring a weekend of Mussar to Temple Beth El with nationally recognized rabbi Dr Alan Morinis. Mussar is a Jewish way of learning based on ethical development, and Stanley’s project focused on the exploration of how the respect or disrespect we show others impacts ourselves.
In keeping with his belief in the value of philanthropy, Stanley has requested that any contributions one chooses to make in his honor be given to the charity of one’s choice.
Stanley exemplified this country’s greatest generation, most of whom are departed. He and the likes of him will be sorely missed. It is our family’s memorial prayer that Stanley’s legacy of hard work and can-do spirit will inspire future generations to lead our families, communities and nation to better days ahead.
