Robert Alton "Bob" Gammage (born March 13, 1938) is a politician from the U.S. state of Texas, having served as a Democrat in the Texas House of Representatives, the Texas State Senate, and the United States House of Representatives.
Gammage was born in Houston and attended Milby High School there. He holds degrees from Del Mar College and the University of Corpus Christi. He holds a masters degree from Sam Houston State University and a Juris Doctor from the University of Texas at Austin. He also earned an LLM from the University of Virginia School of Law.
Before Gammage entered politics, he served in the United States Army and the United States Navy. He retired as a Captain in the United States Navy Reserve. Throughout the late 1960s and early 1970s, he served at several different colleges, including the University of Corpus Christi, San Jacinto College and South Texas College of Law. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, he taught at Sam Houston State University, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, Texas State University, and Saint Edwards University.
Gammage served in the Texas House of Representatives from 1971 to 1973. Gammage was a member of the so-called "Dirty 30," a bipartisan group of legislators that pushed for reform in the wake of the Sharpstown scandal in the 1970s. Gammage was a member of the Texas State Senate from 1973 to 1976. In 1976, he was elected to the 95th Congress, defeating Republican incumbent Ron Paul and served from 1977 until 1979, losing to Paul in the 1978 election. He then served as assistant attorney general of Texas from 1979 to 1980, and as a special consultant to the U.S. Department of Energy in 1980.
In 1982, Gammage was elected as a justice to the Texas Court of Appeals in Austin, Texas and served in that position until 1991. He was then elected to the Texas Supreme Court where he served from 1991 until 1995. In 2006, Gammage lost the Texas gubernatorial Democratic primary election to former U.S. Representative Chris Bell.
Gammage currently practices law and serves as an arbitrator, mediator and consultant.
On May 27, 2008, Gammage delivered the funeral eulogy for his former "Dirty Thirty" colleague Joseph Hugh Allen, a former representative from Baytown.
1971
| Texas House of Representatives | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Arthur Vance |
Member of the Texas House of Representatives from District 24-3 (Houston) 1971–1973 |
Succeeded by Obsolete district |
| Texas Senate | ||
| Preceded by Chet Brooks |
Texas Senate, District 7 1973–1976 |
Succeeded by Gene Jones |
| United States House of Representatives | ||
| Preceded by Ron Paul |
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Texas's 22nd congressional district 1977-1979 |
Succeeded by Ron Paul |
| Legal offices | ||
| Preceded by C.L. Ray, Jr. |
Texas Supreme Court Justice, Place 8 1991-1995 |
Succeeded by James A. Baker |