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William Sinkin

Bill Sinkin is a community activist in San Antonio.

Personal Life

William Sinkin was born in San Antonio on May 19, 1913. While he studied at San Antonio College, he was a Phi Theta Kappa honor society charter member. After he earned a business degree in 1934 from the University of Texas, he began working at his father's wholesale clothing manufacturing company. Soon after, he entered banking and became remarkably successful. In 1942, he married Fay Sinkin, who is known for her longstanding commitment to public health and water issues. After retiring from banking in 1987, he signed on with UTSA as a financial consultant and opened his own consulting firm, William R. Sinkin and Associates.

Democratic Caucus

Sinkin was a precinct chairman for the democratic party in San Antonio for their “two-step” primary voting process for 66 years. He began in 1942 and ended in 2008.

Work on Inclusion

Throughout his life, Mr. Sinkin has worked to improve the community by opening opportunities for those traditionally denied. In 1946, he co-founded Goodwill Industries in San Antonio to help those with physical and mental challenges find work. He chaired the board of the San Antonio Housing Authority (SAHA) from 1949-1953. He also worked to increase the participation of minorities in local governmental agencies. He hired the first woman executive director of SAHA. When Mr. Sinkin bought control of Texas State Bank in the late 1960s, the bank started an aggressive program of minority representation and small business lending. He founded the Urban Coalition of San Antonio in the 1960s, a non-profit research and advocacy organization that works with low-income white communities and communities of color to address community, social, and economic issues. The Coalition works in the areas of education, employment, health, hunger and poverty, welfare reform, immigration, issues of race, technical assistance and capacity building. In 1976, Sinkin led a private delegation of San Antonio Jewish leaders to meet with Mexico's President Echerrveria to discuss Mexican-Jewish relations after Echeverria endorsed a United Nations General Assembly resolution that equated Zionism with racism. The goodwill talks stressed the importance of good relations between the U.S. Jewish community and Mexico to promote economic and cultural ties.

HemisFair

Sinkin's interest in improving the community continued through the 1960s when he undertook a major role in organizing HemisFair. This was the first officially designated international exposition in the Southwestern United States. It celebrated the 250th anniversary of the founding of San Antonio. Its theme was the “Confluence of Civilizations in the Americas,” and it included exhibitions of more than thirty nations. Sinkin served as the first president of San Antonio Fair, Inc., the corporate body for the San Antonio World's Fair. The event took place in 1968, and became a momentous moment in San Antonio’s history. Today, the area surrounding it has been renamed HemisFair Park. Today, at 98, Sinkin is continuing to play an important role in determining the future of this public space, including contributing ideas on public proposals affecting its redevelopment. Despite how busy his schedule was in 1968, he also served on the planning committee for dedicating the Bexar County Hospital, and was Vice Chairman of Bexar County Hospital District. .

Renewable Energy

Sinkin retired from the bank in 1987 and has focused largely on renewable energy since then. As a lifelong advocate of alternative energy, Bill hosted one of San Antonio’s first major solar installations on the rooftop of his bank in the 1980s. He founded Solar San Antonio in 1999, and then launched the Metropolitan Partnership for Energy in 2003. He instigated San Antonio’s Solar Tour, got the city designated as a Solar America City, and is now working to establish a renewable energy center for the state. Over the years, he has helped to get a solar water-heating system installed on the county jail; to launch a sustainable-community restoration of the Pearl Brewery; and encouraged CPS, the largest municipally owned gas-and-electric utility in the country, to launch a solar-roofs incentive program.

Today, Bill spends most of his time working with Solar San Antonio, coordinating efforts with his son, Lanny Sinkin.

Awards

Sinkin has been recognized with numerous awards, including the National Brotherhood Award by the National Conference of Christians and Jews in 1966, and banker of the year by the Small Business Administration and Independent Bankers Association in 1984.