William A. Clement Papers Inventory (#4024)

Manuscripts Department, Library of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Contact Information:

Manuscripts Department

CB#3926, Wilson Library

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Chapel Hill, NC 27514-8890

Phone: 919/962-1345

Fax: 919/962-3594

Email: mss@email.unc.edu

URL: http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/

Processed by

Linda Sellars

Date Completed

June 2001

Encoded by

Linda Sellars

Descriptive Summary Including Abstract

Title

William A. Clement Papers (#4024) 1930-1998

Creator

Clement, William A., 1912- .

Extent

About 30,000 items (42.5 linear feet)

Repository

Southern Historical Collection

Abstract

William A. Clement (1912-2001) was an executive of North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company and a business and civic leader in Durham, N.C. Clement was married to Josephine Dobbs Clement and had six children. The collection contains personal and professional papers of Clement, including correspondence, clippings, speeches, reports, pictures, and other items documenting his family life, career, and business and civic activities, as well as his participation in church and fraternal organizations. Included are letters and other materials relating to North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company; insurance organizations, including American College of Bryn Mawr, Pa. (formerly the American College of Chartered Life Underwriters), the Life Insurance Agency Management Association, Life Insurance Marketing and Research Association, and the National Insurance Association; Penn Community Services (formerly Penn Normal, Industrial and Agricultural School) of St. Helena Island, S.C.; corporate boards, such as Wachovia Bank and North Carolina Central University; civic and fraternal organizations, such as the Raleigh-Durham Airport Authority, Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People, Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons, Sigma Pi Phi Fraternity, the Occoneechee Council of the Boy Scouts of America, the Democratic Party, Durham Academy, the Madeira School, Talladega College Alumni Association, the United Fund of Durham and Durham County, and White Rock Baptist Church. There are also photographs, apparently from the 1930s and 1940s, of African American men and women, both portraits and in groups engaged in social activities.

Administrative Information

Access

Material in boxes 80-85 is CLOSED until 1 July 2051.

Usage Restrictions

Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Provenance

Received from William A. Clement of Durham, N.C., 1978-2000.

Processing Information

This collection was processed with support from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission.

Online Catalog Terms

African American business enterprises--North Carolina--History--20th century.

African American civic leaders--North Carolina.

African American families--North Carolina.

African American freemasons--North Carolina.

African American universities and colleges.

African Americans--North Carolina--Durham.

African Americans--North Carolina--History--20th century.

African Americans--Photographs.

American College (Bryn Mawr, Pa.).

Boy Scouts of America. Occoneechee Council.

Civic leaders--North Carolina--History--20th century.

Clement, Josephine.

Clement, William A., 1912- .

Clement family.

Democratic Party (N.C.).

Dobbs family.

Durham (N.C.)--Social life and customs.

Durham Academy (Durham, N.C.).

Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People.

Family--North Carolina--Social life and customs--20th century.

Freemasons--North Carolina--History--20th century.

Insurance companies, American--North Carolina--History--20th century.

Life Insurance Agency Management Association.

Life Insurance Marketing and Research Association.

Madeira School (McLean, Va.).

National Insurance Association (U.S.).

North Carolina Central University--History.

North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company.

Penn Community Services.

Raleigh-Durham Airport Authority.

Sigma Pi Phi.

Talladega College--Alumni and alumnae.

United Fund of Durham and Durham County.

Wachovia Bank and Trust Company.

White Rock Baptist Church (Durham, N.C.).

Biographical Note

William A. Clement was born on 6 May 1912 in Charleston, S.C., the son of Arthur John and Sadie Jones Clement, both of whom were employed by North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company. William A. Clement worked part-time as an agent for North Carolina Mutual, beginning in 1928, while he was a student at the Avery Institute in Charleston.

William A. Clement graduated from Talladega College, Talladega, Ala., in 1934, with a B.A. degree in mathematics. He joined the staff of North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company in 1934, working first as an agent in the Memphis district; then as assistant manager, Charleston district, 1935-1940, then as agency supervisor, 1940-1944, and regional director, 1944-1946, in the regional office in Atlanta. In 1946, Clement moved to Durham, N.C., where he served as assistant to the agency director, 1946-1949; assistant agency director, 1949-1953; associate agency director, 1953-1961; agency director, 1961-1962; vice-president, 1962-1966; vice-president in charge of field operations, 1966; agency vice-president, 1967-1969; senior vice-president, 1969-1976; and executive vice-president, 1976-1978.

Clement became a chartered life underwriter in 1953 and was active in numerous life insurance associations, including serving on the boards of directors of the American College of Life Underwriters (later American College), the Life Insurance Agency Management Association (LIAMA), and the Life Insurance Marketing Research Association (LIMRA), and as president and secretary of the National Insurance Association (NIA).

After his retirement from North Carolina Mutual, Clement formed William A. Clement and Associates, which provided financial management and marketing services with particular focus on minority clients. Clement also served as president of the Security Investment Company of Durham, N.C., a private investment association with a portfolio of real estate and securities holdings.

Clement was a member of the board of directors, executive committee, and finance committee of North Carolina Mutual; and on the boards of directors of the Durham branch of Wachovia Bank and Trust Company, Durham County General Hospital, board of trustees of the Kate B. Reynolds Health Care Trust, and the board of trustees of North Carolina Central University. He was chair of the North Carolina Central Board of Trustees from 1975 to 1981.

Clement was also active in civic affairs, serving as chair of the Raleigh-Durham Airport Authority; president of the Durham District and vice chair of the Occoneechee Council of the Boys Scouts of America; president of the United Fund of Durham and Durham County; treasurer of Penn Community Services of South Carolina; president of the Talladega College Alumni Association; chair of the committee on education of the Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People; and Most Worshipful Grand Master of the Prince Hall Masons Grand Lodge of North Carolina. He served as a trustee or director of the Durham Chamber of Commerce, Durham Development Corporation, White Rock Baptist Church, Durham Academy, the Madeira School, and the Duke University Comprehensive Cancer Center. Clement was a member of the Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People, the Durham Rotary Club, the Governor's Business Council on Arts and the Humanities, the Mayor's Advisory Board for the Revitalization of Downtown Durham, the Foundation for Better Health Care of Durham, Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, and Sigma Pi Phi Fraternity.

For his many services, Clement was awarded the Silver Beaver by the Boy Scouts, 1966; the Crosthwaite Award of the Chicago Insurance Association, 1977; the father of the year award from the Durham Merchants Association, 1968; and an honorary doctorate from North Carolina Central University, 1981, He and Josephine Clement were honorees at the Durham NAACP Freedom Fund dinner in 1980.

Clement married Frances Lawson of Sumter, S.C., on 25 September 1935 and had one daughter Alexine, born 10 June 1936. Frances Lawson Clement died of cancer on 14 December 1940. On 24 December 1941, Clement married Josephine Dobbs, daughter of John Wesley Dobbs of Atlanta, Ga. They had five children: William A., born 22 January 1943; Wesley Dobbs, born 18 April 1946; Arthur John, born 31 December 1948; Kathleen Ophelia, born 3 January 1957; and Josephine Millicent (Jody).

Collection Overview

Personal and professional papers of African American businesman William A. Clement include correspondence, clippings, speeches, reports, pictures, and other items documenting Clement's activities as insurance industry executive at North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company and business and civic leader in Durham, N.C.. There are also materials relating to his activities in church and fraternal organizations and with family members, especially his wife, Josephine Clement. Also included are letters and other materials relating to Penn Community Services (formerly Penn Normal, Industrial and Agricultural School) of St. Helena Island, S.C., including material about the effect of the civil rights movement in the late 1960s on Penn's leadership and direction.

The collection contains material about organizations related to Clement's insurance career, including American College of Bryn Mawr, Pa. (formerly the American College of Chartered Life Underwriters), the Life Insurance Agency Management Association, the Life Insurance Marketing and Research Association, and the National Insurance Association. Also included is material relating to Clement's service on corporate boards, such as Wachovia Bank and Trust Company, Durham County General Hospital, and North Carolina Central University. There are also files about Clement's participation in civic and fraternal organizations, such as the Raleigh-Durham Airport Authority; Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons; Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity; Sigma Pi Phi Fraternity; the Occoneechee Council of the Boy Scouts of America; the Democratic Party; Durham Academy; the Madeira School in McLean, Va.; the Durham Rotary Club; Talladega College Alumni Association; the United Fund of Durham and Durham County; the United Negro College Fund; and White Rock Baptist Church.

Also included are photographs, apparently from the 1930s and 1940s, of African American men and women, both portraits and in groups engaged in social activities.

For the most part, the materials are filed as Clement kept them and many of his file titles have been retained. In some cases, information on a particular topic (especially the activities of specific organizations) may be found in more than one series. Researchers are advised to review all possible locations for materials of interest.

Organization of Collection

1. Personal Correspondence and Related Papers
2. North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company
3. Chartered Life Underwriter
4. Penn Community Services
5. North Carolina Central University
6. Raleigh-Durham Airport Authority
7. Masons
8. Business and Civic Organizations
9. Speeches
10. Family
11. Clippings
12. Pictures

Series Descriptions

Items Separated

Items separated include pictures (P-4024), oversize papers (OP-4924), audiotapes (T-4024 and C-4024), and videotapes (VT-4024).

Related Collections

Josephine Dobbs Clement Papers (#4444);
Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007), Interview C-31;
Penn Normal, Industrial and Agricultural School Papers (#3615);
William Jesse Kennedy, Jr., Papers (#4925).