Allan Saxe, the frugal philanthropist and former longtime political science professor at the University of Texas at Arlington, died Monday of pancreatic cancer, his widow Ruthie Brock told The Dallas Morning News.
Saxe, 85, donated at least $1 million throughout his life to various Arlington causes and was a founder of the Arlington Life Shelter, which helps create a path to self-sustainability for homeless individuals. From 1965 to 2019, he was a political science professor at UTA after several years at the University of Oklahoma in his native state.
Tarrant County Commissioner Alisa Simmons was among many posting about Saxe’s death on Facebook. Numerous scholarships and buildings at UTA, including the campus softball field, are named in Saxe’s honor.
UTA President Jennifer Cowley said in a statement the university is “forever grateful” for Saxe’s time as a UTA professor.
“For nearly six decades, Allan Saxe has been a Maverick institution — one of our best known and most beloved professors,” Cowley said. “He was engaging, smart, funny, and opinionated, and his classes were considered can’t miss by generations of UT Arlington students. He was so popular that when our university magazine asked Mavericks a few years ago to share their favorite Allan Saxe memories, hundreds of alumni submitted entries. His legacy of overwhelming generosity and kindness is visible across our campus and our region — with parks, gardens, softball fields, patios, and traffic circles bearing his name. My condolences go out to his family and friends — of which he had many.”
Former Arlington Mayor Richard Greene, a longtime friend, wrote in 2018 for Arlington Today that Saxe donated “in the range of seven figures.” Saxe himself estimated his contributions to be $1.5 million to $2.5 million over about 55 years.
Greene said in a phone call Wednesday afternoon that Saxe was a “one of a kind” role model and central figure in the Arlington community. Greene said over the years, there may have been people who have donated more money to Arlington, but nobody gave away all their money like Saxe did.
“I said, ‘Allan, you’re giving away all of your money, I’m not sure you can support yourself and pay your monthly bills when you’re giving it all away,’” Greene said. “He said, ‘Well, there’s people who need it more than I do.’”
Brock said she met Saxe in the 1970s when she was a librarian at UTA. His quirky sense of humor and dry wit are what made her fall in love with him, she said. They were both divorced when they met and not eager to remarry. They dated for roughly 40 years before tying the knot in 2018.
”He was one of a kind,” Brock said. “I am so glad that many of his experiences, I was able to share with him.”
Saxe compared himself, physically, to Woody Allen and had a yearning to be liked and remembered.
According to a profile in The Shorthorn, UTA’s student newspaper, Saxe dedicated his life to charity following a near-death experience with polio as a child. A Dallas Morning News article from 1993 said upon his mother’s death in 1992, Saxe decided to donate his entire $500,000 inheritance to a variety of charities, and had been donating roughly half his salary to charity for 15 years before that.
His mother, who lived in an Oklahoma City apartment after working for years as a cashier, socked away stocks and bonds and left her son six figures in artwork, real estate and other assets, The News reported in 1993.
“He distributed the money here and there, sometimes on a whim. He gave it to people he hardly knew, to institutions he had no connection with,” The News’ article said.
Despite his wealth, Saxe drove a 1985 Oldsmobile for several years. His selflessness continued even after he donated the first half-million within a year of his mother’s death.
A 2009 Associated Press article reported that the career professor continued to give out of his fixed income: “And he keeps giving. Last year, he donated $84,450, well over half his income, primarily to charities, hospitals, humane societies, universities and nonprofit groups.”
That same article listed just a fraction of the places and things that bear his name: “There’s Allan Saxe Park, the Allan Saxe Parkway, the Allan Saxe Dental Clinic, and, at the University of Texas at Arlington, Allan Saxe Field for softball, not to mention the Allan Saxe pencil sharpeners in University Hall.”
He relinquished one namesake, urging for the onetime Allan Saxe Stadium, where UT Arlington’s baseball team played, to be named after late coach Clay Gould, who died of cancer at 29.
Brock said Saxe was enthusiastic and happy to give away all his money and was apt to identify a problem in the community and find a way to solve it. Saxe’s philanthropy allowed him to get involved with local politics, she said, which further allowed him to find outlets for his donations.
When he decided to give away his mother’s inheritance, Brock said she told him to save some of the money and invest it to give away later.
But Saxe didn’t listen and soon had given it all away. He continued to give from his own pockets once the inheritance had run dry.
”It blew my mind,” Brock said. “He was obsessed with giving away money. He couldn’t stand to have it in his bank account, he was not a person who liked to buy things.
”The experience of giving away money, it made him so happy and enthusiastic,” Brock said. “He wanted to do more of it.”
The modest Oklahoman was revered on UT Arlington’s campus for his “quirky lectures.” Students flocked to his class for a slice of his wisdom. There was always a wait list for his classes, Brock said. She remembers walking by and often hearing his class erupt in laughter at something he said. His wit and beliefs were captured in multiple TEDx talks.
The author and former radio commentator grew up in Oklahoma City and in the 1960s, spent nearly a decade at OU earning his bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate. In a 2020 Dallas Morning News story, Saxe revealed he had been living with Parkinson’s. He also shared with the paper he’d planned to match a donation of up to $10,000 to the shelter he helped start.
“If they can raise just a couple of dollars, then that’s great,” Saxe said.
Greene said Saxe will always be remembered in Arlington.
“His legacy is forever,” Greene said. “He will not be forgotten. His name is all over the community as a reward for his generosity. There’s not enough media time or ink to cover the life of Allan Saxe. There’s so much to be described about it all.”
