Philip Ricketts

Born in Gatesville, Texas, Ricketts received his undergraduate degree from Baylor University,^[1] attending on scholarship,^[3] thereafter serving in the United States Army for two years as a military intelligence officer during the Vietnam War.^[1][4] Ricketts received his law degree from the University of Texas School of Law,^[1][2] and gained admission to the bar in Texas in 1973.^[2] For a time, he was an attorney for Texas Rural Legal Aid,^[5][6][7] for example in cases in 1974 and 1975 representing Mexican-American students born in Texas, who sought to attend local schools there although their legal guardians remained in Mexico.^[5][6]

When the Public Utility Commission was created by the state legislature in 1975, Ricketts was appointed as its Chief Administrative Law Judge.^[1] In that capacity, Ricketts ruled in 1977 that Gulf States Utility Co. could begin supplying power to College Station, Texas, over the objections of the city of Bryan, Texas.^[8] In 1982, under Governor Bill Clements, he became an assistant attorney general, serving as the Texas Attorney General's Chief of the Utility Section.^[1]

In January 1983, Ricketts became incoming Governor Mark White's assistant general counsel,^[9] and in March 1983, Governor White appointed Ricketts as a commissioner of the PUC.^[7] In August 1984, Ricketts was elected by his two fellow commissioners to serve as chair, following the resignation of commissioner Alan Erwin.^[9]

Ricketts resigned from the PUC as of October 7, 1985, in order to return to private practice with a law firm of Bracewell & Patterson in Austin,^[1][10] having previously informed Governor White "that he did not want to be reappointed to the commission".^[10] Ricketts remained with the firm until his death, and practiced energy and telecommunications law.^[1]

In December 1972, Ricketts married law school classmate Nancy Overman, with whom he had one son.^[1][4] He died in Austin at the age of 73.^[1][2]