Bill Ratliff
William Roark Ratliff, known as Bill Ratliff (born August 16, 1936), is a Texas politician who served as a member of the Texas State Senate from 1988 to 2004. Between 2000 and 2003 he served as the 40th Lieutenant Governor of Texas, after previous Lieutenant Governor Rick Perry succeeded to the governorship to replace George W. Bush who resigned to become President of the United States.
Biography
Bill Ratliff was educated at Sonora High School in Sonora in Sutton County in West Texas and then at the University of Texas at Austin, where he studied civil engineering. Ratliff, along with brothers Shannon and Jack, was a member of the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity. He then worked as a civil engineer for thirty years.
He was first elected in 1988 as a Republican to the Texas State Senate from the district including his city of residence, Mount Pleasant in Titus County in northeast Texas. In 1992, he was appointed chairman of the Senate Education Committee by Lieutenant Governor Bob Bullock. From 1997 to 1998, he served as President Pro Tempore of the Texas Senate.
