By Bill Zeeble, KERA News
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kera/local-kera-971521.mp3
Dallas, TX – The late Texas Governor Bill Clements, who died Sunday, will be buried today in a private ceremony. This afternoon, there'll be a public memorial service at St. Michaels and All Angels Episcopal Church. KERA's Bill Zeeble spoke to grandson George Seay about Clements, the governor who helped swing state politics to the GOP.
Bill Clements was an oil driller who built the giant Southeast Drilling Company, Sedco. It became enormously successful and technologically innovative. Grandson George Seay says Clements carried business lessons into office. He was the first Republican governor since reconstruction but his grandson says he cared more about the state, it's employers and their families, than party politics.
George Seay: He appointed numerous Republicans to state boards and agencies, but also appointed a whole lot of Democrats. He really started that trend and accelerated that trend but he wanted the best people. He didn't necessarily want what was best for Republicans or any other special interest or political party. He wanted what was best for Texas.
Seay says that's why his grandfather voted for LBJ over Goldwater. But he thought of himself as an entrepreneur, not a politician. He was a blunt, not smooth, talker or dresser, which may have been a reason he won the governor's race in 1979.
Seay: Because he started his life absolutely broke, 17 years old in the Sinton, Texas oil field. So he really related well to ordinary good people that weren't well known or regarded, that didn't have much wealth or power.
Grandson George Seay says even after Clements attained political power, he remained true to himself. He helped Richard Nixon get elected president in 1968 and again in 1972. Nixon wanted him as ambassador to West Germany, an important role in the cold war. Clements declined.
Seay: He wasn't the most diplomatic guy who ever lived. In 1972, Nixon said "What do you want, Bill?" My grandfather said I want to run the Department of Defense, I want to report to you, I want a signed agreement that I report to you and I want to pick every single Undersecretary and Assistant Secretary in the department underneath me and require them to a have a 4 year commitment, and he got all that.
Seay says Clements was either a Deputy Secretary of Defense or Acting Secretary for presidents Nixon and Ford. He championed the Cruise Missile, against desires of some military brass.
Seay: In the Persian gulf war everyone remembers the video - who's old enough to have watched it - where all the cruise missiles get launched off the ships to begin the Persian gulf war. And all the generals and admirals and people in the civilian infrastructure of the Department of Defense, who served with him, called him that night to congratulate him and say "we did it." Because they had to work so hard to get that weapon in the arsenal of the military.
Seay says it saved scores of lives. He also acknowledges his grandfather had many faults. Bill Clements served on the Board of Southern Methodist University during the football scandal that led to the so-called death penalty. The school illegally paid players. Seay says Clements did not immediately end the practice when he found out, but should have. And Clements raised taxes against his own wishes, but the grandson says it's what his grandfather considered necessary for the state.
He says Clements was a colorful, brash and complex person, more so than many realized. See invited his grandfather to speak to his daughters 3rd grade class. He agreed. The grandson assumed he liked public speaking, after doing it so many years. He was wrong.
Seay: He said I got nervous everytime I spoke. He said I was a drilling contractor. I like drilling oil wells and creating businesses. I didn't like speaking in front of a lot of people but I did it anyway. He made himself do things that were difficult to do.
Clements' daughter Nancy says her dad is now in heaven. She says last week he openly wondered if he would end up there. She told him God hears your desire. I think he'll honor that.
The memorial service is at 4 this afternoon at Saint Michaels and All Angels Episcopal Church.