Harris County Honors Charles Bacarisse

The News Magazine of HCU

The Commissioner’s Court recognized Charles’ great accomplishment and contribution to Harris County by naming the Historical Document Room in his honor.

HBU is blessed to have many talented and successful employees serve within our walls. One such individual is Charles Bacarisse, vice president of major gifts in the Office of Advancement. Charles was the Harris County District Clerk from 1995 to 2007. During his time as District Clerk, Charles’ office discovered that Harris County court documents dating back to the Republic of Texas were being housed in an environment without air conditioning and were slowly rotting away. Charles and the Honorable Judge Mark Davidson led the way for these court documents to be digitized and preserved, which started an effort state-wide to preserve historic county and state documents.

Some court documents that were discovered revealed a lawsuit between Stephen F. Austin and Sam Houston, the namesakes of the cities of Austin and Houston, as well as a lawsuit between Sam Houston and Mirabeau B. Lamar, the first and second presidents of the Republic of Texas. Had Charles and his team not acted, these historic documents would have been lost to the effects of carelessness and Houston humidity.

In December 2016, the Commissioner’s Court recognized Charles’ great accomplishment and contribution to Harris County by naming the Historical Document Room in his honor The Charles Bacarisse Historical Document Room is available for viewing court documents from 1837-1925.

Charles was very honored and especially proud that his now-adult children could attend the court and hear about the work he did when they were young. “I was really quite surprised and humbled by it. I couldn’t believe it at first, but it was really wonderful to go for the Commissioner’s Court and to have my kids come down and see this.”

HBU congratulates Charles Bacarisse on this great honor!