Bill Clements's terms bookended the sole term served by Mark Wells White, a Democrat who defeated Clements in the 1982 election only to lose his campaign for re-election in 1986.
29 Facts About Bill Clements
2.
When Clements was first sworn in during 1979, he became the first Republican to have served as governor of Texas since Reconstruction.
3.
When Bill Clements left office for good at the end of his second term in 1991, his eight years in office were the most served by any Texas governor until Rick Perry surpassed his total in 2009.
4.
Bill Clements was the first governor to be elected to multiple terms since Texas changed its constitution in 1972 to extend their governor's term of office to four years.
5.
In 1947, Bill Clements founded the offshore drilling business Southeastern Drilling Company, which would expand to 20 countries and grow into the top drilling contracting company in the world before being sold to Schlumberger in 1984.
6.
Bill Clements had a personal wealth worth nearly $30 million by 1978, the year he first ran for Texas governor.
7.
From 1973 to 1977, Bill Clements served as United States Deputy Secretary of Defense under Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford.
8.
For 39 days in 1973, Bill Clements served as acting Secretary of Defense.
9.
On January 16,1979, Bill Clements succeeded Democrat Dolph Briscoe as governor of Texas.
10.
Bill Clements won the general election held on November 8,1978, by having narrowly defeated Democratic former Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice John Luke Hill, who had served six years as state attorney general.
11.
Bill Clements polled 1,183,828 votes to Hill's 1,166,919 votes.
12.
In 1980, Bill Clements commuted the death sentence of Randall Dale Adams to life in prison.
13.
Bill Clements was governor at the time of the execution of Carlos DeLuna, who was put to death in 1989; evidence questioning the findings of facts that underlay DeLuna's conviction was published in 2012.
14.
Bill Clements ran for reelection in 1982 but was defeated by Democratic Attorney General Mark Wells White by more than 327,000 votes because of sagging economic indicators and weak support from minority voters, who historically support Democratic candidates.
15.
Bill Clements was damaged politically by the Ixtoc I oil spill disaster; the rig that failed was owned by SEDCO, but leased to Permargo, which had an exploration contract with Pemex, despite his shares in SEDCO being held in blind trust at the time; his opponent, White, as attorney general, led the state's lawsuit against SEDCO.
16.
In between his two terms as governor, Bill Clements was chairman of the board of governors of Southern Methodist University in Dallas.
17.
Bill Clements ran again in 1986 and won a contested GOP primary against US Representative Thomas Loeffler of New Braunfels, the seat of Comal County, and former Democratic turned Republican Congressman Kent Hance of Lubbock.
18.
In gaining his second term, Bill Clements polled 1,813,779 ballots to White's 1,584,512.
19.
On March 3,1987, Bill Clements admitted that he and the other members of the SMU board of governors had approved a secret plan to continue payments to 13 football players from a slush fund provided by a booster.
20.
Bill Clements said that the board agreed to "phase out" the slush fund at the end of the 1986 season, but that it felt duty-bound to honor prior commitments to the players.
21.
Bill Clements said that he had learned about the slush fund in 1984, and an investigation by the board of governors revealed that players had been paid to play since the mid-1970s.
22.
Bill Clements said that rather than shut the payments down immediately, the board "reluctantly and uncomfortably" decided to continue paying players who had already been guaranteed payments.
23.
Bill Clements faced calls for his impeachment as a result of these statements; two state legislators argued that he would have never been elected had he honestly addressed his role in the scandal.
24.
In June 2009, Bill Clements donated $100 million to UT Southwestern Medical Center, the largest civic donation in Dallas history.
25.
Bill Clements, incidentally, won the Republican nomination that ultimately led to his first term as governor by defeating Hutchison's husband, Ray, in the 1978 GOP primary.
26.
An investor, Bill Clements was a graduate of Southern Methodist University, married, and the father of three children.
27.
Bill Clements was predeceased by his mother, Pauline Allen Gill Clements, Bill Clements's first wife.
28.
On May 29,2011, Bill Clements died at age 94 in a Dallas hospital from natural causes.
29.
Bill Clements is buried at the Grove Hill Memorial Park in Dallas.