Harry S. Dent Papers
Collection
Identifier: Mss-0158
The Harry S. Dent Papers contain affidavits, articles, artifacts, audio cassettes, book drafts (first drafts and later), clippings, correspondence, a DVD, financial documents, fliers, legal documents, maps, minutes, newsletters, newspapers, page proofs, photographs, scrapbooks, sermons, speeches, transcripts, videocassettes, and other items spanning the period from 1913-2007 with the bulk of the material dating from 1966 to 1995.
The collection documents his role as Chairman of the South Carolina Republican Party; his work for President Richard M. Nixon’s administration as Deputy/Special Counsel; his legal career after his departure from the White House staff; his tenure as Director of the Billy Graham Lay Center from 1982-1985; and his Baptist evangelical work with his wife Betty through their lay ministry Laity Alive and Serving, including missions to the Cluj-Napoca region of Romania and Dent’s chairmanship of the Billy Graham Crusade held in Columbia, South Carolina in 1987. There is also material on the Watergate scandal and his peripheral involvement in it; his service as a trustee to the Baptist College at Charleston (SC; later Charleston Southern University) and Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (Louisville, KY); his involvement in the Health Investment Group, Inc.; and the writing of his books Prodigal south returns to power, Layman looks through the Bible for God's will, Cover up: the Watergate in all of us, and Right vs. wrong: solutions to the American nightmare. Aside from the scrapbooks, there is very little in the papers concerning Dent’s personal life and career prior to becoming South Carolina Republican Party chairman in 1965.
Among the items of interest in the collection are the White House files relating to the run-up to the 1972 Presidential election, including information about the other two candidates, George McGovern and George Wallace. The Personal series has material relating to the 1976 and 1980 presidential elections; the latter includes both George Bush’s primary campaign and Ronald Reagan’s general election campaign. The Legal series documents his work with the South Carolina Association for the Deaf (particularly Barnes v. Converse College) and the South Carolina Healthcare Association (mainly legal work for nursing homes), as well as the Wagdy Demian case which highlights the internal working of the South Carolina Department of Social Services.
In the Laity: Alive and Serving series one can not only find an oral history on the Graham Crusade conducted by the Billy Graham Center at Wheaton College, Illinois (the Crusade material in this series supplements that held by Center) but Dent’s research on the role of the laity in the church; his development of materials to teach about God and the Bible and his extensive teaching schedule; his role in creating a “sister city” relationship between Columbia and Cluj-Napoca, including working with Columbia’s mayor, Bob Coble; and his promotion of character education in secondary school. This series also documents the often contentious transition from a moderate to a conservative administration and Board of Trustees for the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, including controversies over the theological stances of President Roy Lee Honeycutt and faculty members E. Glenn Hinson, Molly Marshall-Green, and Paul Simmons.
Other topics covered in the Dent Papers include U.S. and Southern politics; the Nixon administration; the history of the national and South Carolina Republican Parties; the 1970 and 1972 political campaigns for the U.S. House; the textile industry in South Carolina and the United States; state and federal laws concerning the deaf, especially regarding accessibility in higher education; and state and federal laws regarding nursing homes. There is also some material relating to state legislator Sol Blatt, his political colleagues Lee Atwater and J. Fred Buzhardt, Jr. as well as former employers U.S. President Richard M. Nixon and U.S. Senator Strom Thurmond.
Correspondents include U.S. Vice President Spiro Agnew; evangelists Bill Barton, Leighton Ford, Billy Graham, John Guest, and Josef Tson; White House staff members Ken Belieu, Gordon Brownell, Alexander Butterfield, Dwight Chapin, Charles Colson, John Ehrlichman, Peter Flanigan, Jack Gleason, H. R. Haldeman, Bryce Harlow, Jeb Stuart Magruder, and Peter Millspaugh; U.S. Presidents George Bush, Gerald Ford, Richard Nixon, and Ronald Reagan; South Carolina governors Carroll Campbell and James B. Edwards; Dent’s wife Betty; Republican Party operative James Duffy; business leaders Jack Eckerd (founder of Eckerd Drugs), Roger Milliken, and Darla Moore; U.S. Senators Barry Goldwater and Strom Thurmond; the Health Investment Group, Inc.; religious scholar E. Glenn Hinson; Roy Lee Honeycutt and R. Albert Mohler, presidents of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY; Greg Horton, 1991 President of the South Carolina Baptist Convention; J. Robertson McQuilkin, president of Columbia Bible college (now Columbia International University) in Columbia, SC; the National Center for Law and the Deaf, Gallaudet University, Washington, D.C.; the South Carolina Association of the Deaf; the South Carolina Healthcare Association; Alastair Walker, formerly pastor of the First Baptist Church of Spartanburg, SC; General William Westmoreland; Congressman Ed Young; and Dr. Gregore Zanc, professor of philosophy and Prefect of Cluj-Napoca.
This collection contains audio-visual material. Please contact Special Collections & Archives (cuscl@clemson.edu, 864.656.3031) for details.
Harry Shuler Dent was born in St. Matthews, South Carolina on February 21, 1930, the son of Hampton Nathaniel Dent, Sr. and Sally Prickett. He graduated from Presbyterian College in 1951, attended the University of South Carolina Law School, and received his LLB from George Washington University in 1957 and his LLM from Georgetown University in 1959. Dent attended Columbia Bible College (now Columbia International University) 1981-1982 and earned a Certificate in Bible Studies. He married Elizabeth Inez Francis in 1951 and they had four children: Harry Dent Jr., Dolly, Ginny, and Jack.
Dent entered the Army in 1951 as a second lieutenant and was released as a first lieutenant after serving in the 24th Infantry Division, Far East Command, from 1952-1953. He became administrative assistant to Strom Thurmond in 1955 and held this position until 1965, when he became chairman of the South Carolina Republican Party. In 1968 Dent became Deputy Counsel to President Nixon and in 1969 Special Counsel, and served in this position until he resigned in December 1972. He served as general counsel to the Republican National Committee from 1973-1974. In 1974 he plead guilty to a misdemeanor for his part in the 1970 “townhouse operation” that raised funds for the Nixon administration and was given one month of unsupervised probation.
Dent worked for the presidential campaigns of Gerald R. Ford (1976) and George H. W. Bush (1980) and served as the President's representative to the Sabine River Compact Administration 1977-1978 and as a member of the advisory committee to the Campaign Advising Service of the Republican National Committee in 1977.
He became a partner in the law firm Dent and Kennedy in 1965 and continued with that firm until 1968. He later became a partner in the firm of Whaley, McCutchen, Blanton and Dent (1973-1974) and was a senior partner of the firm Dent, Kirkland, Taylor and Wilson until 1981.
After earning his certificate from Columbia Bible College (now Columbia International University) in Columbia, SC he was the first director of the Billy Graham Lay Center in Asheville, NC from 1982-1985. Dent and his wife started their lay ministry, Laity Alive and Serving, Inc. in 1985; the ministry was continued after his death by his daughter Ginny and her husband Alton Brant. Harry and Betty Dent made numerous trips abroad as part of their ministry and were involved in setting up eighteen missions in Romania after the fall of Nicolae Ceausescu in 1989.
Dent was also very involved in the evangelical activities of the Southern Baptists. He was vice chairman of the Carolinas Billy Graham Crusade in Charlotte, NC (1985-1986) and chairman of the South Carolina Billy Graham Crusade in Columbia (1986-1987). Dent served as a trustee of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY from 1986-1996 and of the Baptist College of Charleston in South Carolina (from 1990 known as Charleston Southern University) from 1988-1992, as well as serving as a member of the Southern Baptist Convention's Executive Committee from 1996-2001.
In 1995 South Carolina Superintendent of Education Barbara Nielsen appointed Dent to establish character education as part of the school curriculum. He also acted as a correspondent for several South Carolina newspapers and radio stations. He was the author of five books: Prodigal south returns to power (1978), Layman looks through the Bible for God's will (1983), Cover up: the Watergate in all of us (1986), Right vs. wrong: solutions to the American nightmare (with his wife Betty, 1992) and Teaching Jack and Jill right vs. wrong in the homes and schools: a primer on character education (1996). He died on September 28, 2007 in Columbia, SC from complications of Alzheimer's Disease.
76.975 Cubic Feet ((consisting of 2,158 folders, 12 volumes, 375 photographs, 2 contact sheets, 22 negatives, 6 oversize photographs, 36 videocassettes, 4 audiocassettes, 1 DVD, 69 oversize items, 14 objects).)
English
This collection consists of the White House files and the personal papers of Harry S. Dent. It documents his involvement with the South Carolina and national Republican Party; his political work for President Richard M. Nixon’s Presidential administration and his peripheral involvement in the Watergate scandal; his legal career after his departure from the White House staff; his evangelical work with his wife through their ministry Laity Alive and Serving, including their missions to Romania and his chairmanship of the Billy Graham Crusade held in Columbia, South Carolina in 1987; and his authorship of five books, mainly on religious topics.
The collection is organized into ten series: White House Files, Personal, Legal, Laity Alive and Serving, Books, Scrapbooks, Photographs, Oversize, Audiovisual, and Memorabilia. Folders in the White House Files subseries are arranged alphabetically by folder title within each year and chronologically within each folder; the other series are arranged alphabetically by folder title, and then chronologically within each folder. The scrapbook volumes are in roughly chronological order. Photographs oversize materials, and memorabilia have been removed from the Papers.
Acquired from Harry S. Dent, 1988-1989 and 1996 in accessions 88-151, 89-26, 96-106 and 96-137; Betty F. Dent., 2001 and 2009 in accessions 01-23 and 09-01.
The White House files and portions of the Personal and Laity Alive and Serving Series (the Billy Graham Crusade material) were processed by James Cross and Laurie Varenhorst and opened for research in 1994; they also prepared the register that same year. Processing of the rest of the collection occurred 2009-2011 and was completed by James Cross and student assistants Keller Anne Bumgardner, J. C. Campbell, Sravya Durugu, Markarabee Fields, Sarah Johnson and Alex McClure. The register was revised by James Cross in 2011.
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 Jen Bingham.
Part of the Clemson University Libraries Special Collections and Archives Repository