Buck Mickel Papers
Collection
Identifier: Mss-0298
The papers include address books, calendars, correspondence, itineraries, memoranda, minutes, newspaper clippings, photographs, reports, scrapbooks and speeches that document Mickel's business career, civic and philanthropic activities.
They date from 1925-1998 with the bulk dating from 1964-1997.
The papers are organized in four series: Daniel Construction Corporation, Fluor Corporation, RSI Holdings and Personal. Each series is arranged alphabetically by folder title. The documents within each folder are arranged in chronological order.
The Daniel Construction series includes minutes of the board, information about the purchase of the firm by Fluor, and corporate publications as well as correspondence and memoranda related to his work for at the corporation. There are four scrapbooks of clippings related to the firm and its projects.
The Fluor Corporation series includes extensive communications with David Tappan, President of Fluor, minutes and planning documents from the Fluor Board of Directors, corporate publications, and material about a few construction projects including the location and building of the BMW plant in Greer, South Carolina and projects for Milliken & Company.
The RSI series includes a variety of documents related to the various corporations that this holding company had interests in as well as material concerning potential investments and sales as well as the disposition of its assets.
The Personal series includes Mickel's address books, calendars, itineraries, speeches, and to-do lists. There are also files for some of the many organizations upon whose boards he served including Brookgreen Gardens, the Greenville Chamber of Commerce, Greenville Watershed Study Commission and the Japan-Southeastern US Association.
Documentation related to the many colleges and universities that he was associated with varies from considerable for the Governor's School of Performing Arts and Humanities and the University of South Carolina to next to none in the case of Clemson University. There are also files documenting Mickel's support for the re-election of Senators Strom Thurmond and Ernest Hollings.
Buck Mickel was born December 17, 1925 in Elberton, Georgia to James Clark and Reba Vaughn Mickel. Educated in public schools in Elberton and Atlanta, he graduated from Elberton High School in 1942. During World War II, he attended the U.S. Maritime Academy and served in the Atlantic, Mediterranean and Pacific theaters. Returning to Georgia, Mickel attended the Georgia Institute of Technology and received a B.S. degree in civil engineering in 1947. The following year Mickel began his long association with Daniel Construction Company which was interrupted by a three year tour of duty in Europe at a First Lieutenant in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineering during the Korean Conflict.
Returning to Daniel, he rose in the corporation becoming assistant to the chairman of the board in 1956 and executive vice president in 1958. Upon the death of Charles E. Daniel in 1964, Mickel was elected president and general manager effective January 1, 1965.
Under Mickel's leadership, Daniel Construction was renamed Daniel International Corporation and experienced remarkable growth with significant expansion into foreign and national projects. In 1977 the Fluor Corporation acquired Daniel. Mickel then served in several senior management capacities for the merged firm until his retirement from executive positions in 1987.
Mickel was the chairman and chief executive officer of RSI Holdings from 1978-1998. This holding company owned Royal Scotsman Inn Corporation, a motel chain; Porter Brothers, an outdoor power equipment distributor; Weigman and Rose International, a heat transfer equipment manufacturer; Harper Brothers, an office supply store; and had substantial holdings in Delta Woodside Textile Manufacturing.
Mickel advocated the development of South Carolina and downtown Greenville in particular. He served on many corporate boards, including Stone Manufacturing Company, as well as the boards of various philanthropic and civic organizations including Brookgreen Gardens, the Greenville Chamber of Commerce and the Japan-Southeastern US Association. Mickel was an advocate of higher education serving on the boards of the Citadel, Clemson University, Converse College, Georgia Tech, Presbyterian College, and Wofford College. He was a strong supporter of Senator Strom Thurmond and a variety of other South Carolina political leaders including Senator "Fritz" Hollings and Governor David Beasley.
18 Cubic Feet (341 folders in 35 document boxes, 4 scrapbooks in one records center box, 11 folders of photographs in one box and one oversize folder)
English
Buck Mickel had an outstanding career as an engineer, corporate president, civic leader and philanthropist. The collection contains address books, calendars, correspondence, itineraries, memoranda, minutes, newspaper clippings, reports, scrapbooks, speeches, and other materials relating to Mickel's leadership of Daniel Construction Corporation, Fluor Corporation, RSI Holdings as well as a variety of civic and educational organizations. Of particular note is material related to the redevelopment of downtown Greenville.
Mickel Family and Fluor Corporation via Dottie King as accessions 00-206, 00-207, 01-02, 01-03, 01-11.
Deanna Panetta, student assistant, processed the papers in 2007-2008; Allie Rhyne, student assistant did additional work in 2009. Michael Kohl prepared the finding aid.
The conversion of this finding aid to Encoded Archival Description format was made possible with a grant from the South Carolina State Historical Records Advisory Board in 2009-2010. The finding aid was prepared for encoding by Kristi Roberts.
Part of the Clemson University Libraries Special Collections and Archives Repository