Meet Ken Wise
To Texas, he is known as Justice Ken Wise serving for almost nine years on the 14th District Court of Appeals. To almost one million listeners in 150 countries, he is known as the voice of the Wise About Texas podcast. To friends and family, he is just Ken or Dad and he likes it that way.
Ken Wise’s roots in Houston date all the way back to the beginning. Wise is a direct descendant of early Texas settler Dr. James H. Price, a medical doctor and entrepreneur who arrived in Montgomery, Texas, in 1839. Ken’s middle name “Price” pays homage to this early settler and is a reminder of his deep Texas roots. Fun fact-- and Ken is full of them-- Dr. Price was the proprietor of a hotel where Sam Houston regularly stayed. Wise is also a member of “The Sons of the Republic of Texas,” an organization whose members are direct lineal descendants of those that settled the Republic of Texas before February 19, 1846, when Texas merged with the United States as the 28th state. Do you get much more Houston, Texas than that?! Well, dive in-- that’s just the beginning.
He is the son of two first generation college students. At the time they lived in the Westbury neighborhood of Houston, moving to what were considered the suburbs in the early seventies after his sister was born. The suburbs in the 1970’s were located roughly at Briar Forest and Dairy Ashford. He remembers looking through his backyard fence and watching the cattle on the ranch behind them. Of course, there are no signs of cattle there now. It is the epicenter known as the West Chase District. One fond childhood memory is going to Texas Commerce Bank during the Christmas season. “When we were kids my mom would dress us up and we would ride the bus downtown to Texas Commerce Bank to hear the choir and eat gingerbread cookies at Bank of the Southwest.” If you were to ask Ken’s mom she would be quick to tell you that his early aspiration was to be a sanitation worker because he loved to watch them ride on the back of their trucks. And Ken will be quick to tell you, “I still think riding on the back of a truck is cool, by the way.” Alas, there were other plans in Wise’s future. Wise graduated from Strake Jesuit High School and was drawn to Texas A&M University to be on the rodeo team. He was a member of the rodeo team participating as a calf roper, a competitive team roper, and a steer wrestler.
Although the years at A&M were memorable, his educational journey was not finished yet. Wise returned to Houston to attend University of Houston Law School to eventually become the first lawyer in the Wise family but that’s not what he intended to do when he started his law school journey. In his words, “God had other plans for me… when I went to law school, my intention was to join the FBI. And at that time, you had to have either three years of work experience, a law degree, or be a CPA. And so the recruiter said, go to law school if you're thinking about it, because that way, you know, you're covered. So I intended to be an FBI agent, come back, join DPS, and hopefully become a Texas Ranger. Judge was not on that list. But it's been the greatest thing that's ever happened. An academic historian was not on that list, but now that's coming around. So it's funny how that works. But I also played drums for a long time and thought I would be a drummer and then I was a pretty decent golfer and thought, well, maybe I can make a living playing golf. When I tried it, I learned pretty quickly that was not the case.”
And it should be no surprise by now to learn that Wise’s law career even has deep Houston roots. His first job post law school was at the fifth largest firm in Texas at the time-- Liddell, Sapp, Zivley, Hill & LaBoon. Long before Wise’s tenure at the firm, Jesse Jones was one of the firm’s clients, along with Houston icons such as Texas Commerce Bank and the Houston Chronicle. Wise practiced law for eight years and when there was a vacancy on the 152nd District Court, Governor Rick Perry selected Wise for the appointment. In 2011, Wise was appointed to the 334th District Court, and in 2013 to the 14th Court of Appeals, where he now serves.
From Judge to podcast host-- how does one make that leap? Well, when you are as passionate about history as Ken Wise, it is a small leap indeed, and the Wise About Texas podcast was born. “I love Texas history. I've always loved it. And as I've gotten older, and have started to experience why it's important, and how it is directly relevant to our daily lives, I decided that I needed to, in addition to consuming all the Texas history, produce some history product. There weren't any podcasts on Texas history when I started looking around. And I thought, well, gosh, how do you do a podcast? And so I figured out how to do that and found out it was pretty easy to do.” Historical accuracy is very important to Wise but so are smaller known, fascinating characters of history. What does Wise About Texas feel like when you are listening to it? In Wise’s words, “like you're on the back porch telling Texas history stories.” Wise About Texas is more than just a podcast to Wise, “... it's my effort to extend my public service. I'm not going to be a judge forever but I want to keep serving the public. And I think that this is a way that I can do that. Because our history unites us, history shows us that there are parts that we wish hadn't happened, but they happened. And there are great parts too and we need to come together around those great parts so that, you know, we can keep the good and learn from the bad.”
One of his favorite stories to retell on his podcast is The Great Storm of 1900 in Galveston. “The reason it's near and dear to me is my great great grandfather survived the storm. And he was one of the people that gave his account of his survival of the storm. When I say survived, I mean he was outside during the storm. He wrote an account for the Rosenberg library, and his account is quoted in just about every book on the storm that you can find. His name was Arnold Wolfram. Well, what's not discussed is that his daughter, my great grandmother, survived the storm in their family home in Galveston, pregnant with my grandfather. And my grandfather was then born in December 1900 on Galveston Island, so I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for her surviving that storm. And that's always been a fascinating story of tragedy for sure, but also some great triumph. It affected Galveston and it affected Houston. It provided opportunity for Houston. Houston wouldn't be Houston, if not for that storm. And I don't wish the storm had happened. I'm just saying factually, it destroyed Galveston and Houston sort of rose at that point. That's an interesting time.”
Ken Wise loves to travel. His 16-year old daughter is one of his favorite travel companions and she has seen more Texas historical markers than most teenagers. She has frequently helped her dad film what he calls “Texas History Minutes” for a Youtube channel he wants to put together. You will commonly find Ken hanging out at the San Jacinto Monument, Memorial Park, or Buffalo Bayou. He also recommends Glenwood Cemetery or the Heritage Society at Sam Houston Park for any history buffs out there. You will find him eating Tex-Mex as often as he can, listening to country music, and hunting or golfing in his spare time.
What stands out to Ken as a strength of Houston? Diversity. “One of the great things about Houston is it really doesn't matter whether you grew up here like I did, or whether you came here later in life. Everyone has the opportunity to become a part of this community. And that's why I know that Houston is the single most diverse city in the country because you can be here seven generations or seven days and still be the exact same kind of Houstonian that invented this city in the 1800s. Now we've, you know, we've suffered through the same historical problems that all countries and states have suffered from, but we've overcome them in ways that you just can't measure. Hurricane Harvey is a great example. I chuckled when the national media came down here, and were just shocked at how people were helping each other. Okay, that's shocking to you if you're not from here, but that's just normal to us in Houston. The Houston livestock Show and Rodeo is a perfect example of that. Volunteering with 38,000 other Houstonians, I mean, that's unbelievable! And you will meet people from all backgrounds, all doing the same thing. At times we lose focus on the fact that we all need something that we can all gather around and go the same direction, a positive direction. And if you leave Houstonians to their own devices, we will do that. That's the great thing about this city.”
