Clinton Calhoun Lemon Papers
Collection
Identifier: Mss-0067
The Clemson files from 1932-1984 contain a large amount of athletic and IPTAY information, IPTAY Board of Director's minutes, IPTAY membership campaign literature, applications for athletic season and ACC tournament tickets, mailings and statistics from the athletic department, evidence of much work on IPTAY's constitution and subsequent revisions. The files also include some correspondence with individuals connected with Clemson's athletic program such as Coach and Athletic Director Frank Howard; Athletic Director H. C. "Bill" McLellan; Eugene P. Willimon, George Bennett, and Joe Turner, Executive Directors of IPTAY; Frank J. Jervey, Vice President for Development and early organizer, with Dr. Fike, of IPTAY; Rupert H. Fike, M. D., founder and historian of IPTAY; Robert C. Edwards, president of IPTAY and later President of Clemson University; coaches of all sports; Charles Bussey, IPTAY director and president; representatives of local county IPTAY organizations; and fellow IPTAY board members. These files contain information about early attempts to end the Big Thursday football game between The University of South Carolina and Clemson.
Lemon was a major contributor to writing and revising the IPTAY constitution. He, with Dr. Rupert Fike, gathered historical data and funds for a history of football at Clemson. Dr. Fike prepared a rough draft of a history before he died. The Library has some of the research materials in Mss 34 as well as in this collection, such as a handwritten IPTAY constitution and copies of the membership ritual; the retirement of Frank Howard; the enlarging and naming of the stadium; a proposal for the Sport and Society Conference; investment and expenditures of IPTAY surplus funds; Memorial Stadium and the executive box suites and Lemon's reasons for not wanting one, though eligible; and the NCAA and ACC investigations of Clemson's athletic program.
Over the years, Lemon demonstrated an interest in the total development of the University. Evidence of his wide support through his service to the Alumni Association, the Board of Visitors, and as a vital member of the Clemson University Foundation is found in this collection. There is some correspondence with such correspondents as Liberal Arts Dean Morris Cox, Dr. M. A. Owings, Chairman of the English Department, Melvin Barnette, Vice President for Business and Finance, and others associated with the Clemson University Foundation and the Loyalty Fund. Accounts of the appointment of two outstanding scholar-teachers in the English Department before the endowed chair's permanent professor, Roger Rollin, was hired are also found in this collection.
Restricted material was placed separately until 1999.
C. Calhoun Lemon was born in Barnwell, South Carolina in 1910, the son of Mr. and Mrs. William James Lemon. After graduating from the public schools in Barnwell, he attended Clemson from 1928-1930. He received a bachelor's degree in Business Administration from the University of South Carolina in 1932. Always an avid Clemson supporter, he served as president of IPTAY and was a lifetime director. His most notable accomplishment in IPTAY was his work on its Constitution and his efforts to keep IPTAY funds strictly accounted for so that the tax exempt status would never be jeopardized. He served as former director of the Alumni Association and received its Distinguished Service Award in 1969. Lemon served on the University's Board of Visitors in 1979 and was an active member of the Clemson University Foundation.
On May 4, 1973, Clemson University announced the establishment of the first named professorship in its College of Liberal Arts, made possible by a $50,000.00 gift to the University Foundation by C. Calhoun Lemon in honor of his father, William James Lemon (1879-1965). Lemon, at the time of the announcement, was an active member of the deferred gifts committee of the Foundation which would manage the endowment. He continued his financial and personal support of the Liberal Arts. He was also a member of President Atchley's Statewide Advisory Group.
During Lemon's business career he served as president of five trucking companies which made up the largest, most diversified public trucking operation in South Carolina. In 1972 he was President of the Motor Transportation Association of South Carolina. He was also President of Gulf Coast Paving Company, Inc., of Miami, Florida. As an appointee of Governor James F. Byrnes he served eight years as a member of the State Board of Tax Appeals. Lemon has served as chairman of the boards of Barnwell County Hospital and Nursing Home and Barnwell Methodist Church. He also served as a member of the board of directors of Calhoun Life Insurance Company, Develco, Inc., Southern "500" Industries, Inc., and State College Board of Trustees, which oversees the activities at Frances Marion College, the College of Charleston, and Lander College, 1969-1977.
Lemon married the former Kathryn Craven of Bennettsville, and they had one son and two daughters.
3.25 Cubic Feet
English
This collection consists primarily of material which Lemon collected and created during his long association with IPTAY, Clemson's athletic support group, the Clemson Alumni Association and Loyalty Fund, and the University Foundation. Mr. Lemon gave the collection to the Library in February, 1984 with the request that a number of items be restricted for fifteen years.
Programs, IPTAY newsletters, pamphlets, brochures, and duplicates for various sports have been separated and added, where appropriate, to the holdings of Clemson printed material.
The finding aid for this collection was prepared by Berniece Holt in 1985.
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