Budner, Lawrence H.

Lawrence and Doris Budner’s interest in Theodore Roosevelt began in 1979 when Mr. Budner read The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt, the Pulitzer Prize-winning biography of the twenty-sixth President of the United States written by Edmund Morris. As the couple later recounted, the origins of their Roosevelt collection began when Mr. Budner purchased a first edition copy of T.R.’s autobiography during a trip to San Francisco.

Lawrence Hyman Budner, who worked as a bank executive at the First National Bank in Dallas, was born in 1930 and attended the University of Texas at Austin before transferring to Southern Methodist University, where he received a B.B.A. in banking and finance in 1951. After his retirement from banking, Budner earned a Master’s degree in history from S.M.U. in 1990. Upon receiving his B.B.A., Budner began working for the First National Bank, became an assistant cashier in 1957, vice president in 1962, and senior vice president and trust officer in 1970. Budner opted for early retirement in 1987 upon the merging of First National with Republic Bank of Texas, also located in Dallas. Budner was a member of Temple Emanu-El, in addition to being a founder and president of Temple Shalom, both in Dallas; he also served on the boards of organizations such as the Baylor Health Care System Foundation, the Dallas Jewish Coalition for the Homeless, and Hebrew Union College.

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