Public Relations Biographical Files
Collection
Identifier: Series-0028
This series contains information about administrators, faculty, and staff of Clemson University recorded in a variety of sources: faculty personnel records, personnel cards, newspaper articles and news releases, vitae, and resumés. The sources provide information on appointments, promotions, educational attainments, publications and research, prior positions, social activities, and other activities. The completeness of information varies among individuals.
The series is arranged alphabetically by names of individuals. Many of the files have been photocopied onto archival bond for preservation. For a listing of folders, see the folder inventory that follows this description.
There are no restrictions on access.
Public Relations oversaw the gathering and publication of information in the form of radio broadcasts, press releases, brochures, and agricultural bulletins. Administered by the Vice-President for Development, the office was created in 1967 after a series of changes in name and function.
The earliest precursor, the News Bureau, was begun in 1933 when Joe Sherman, a student at Clemson, asked President E. W. Sikes for funds to publicize athletic events and other activities. Sherman served as head of the News Bureau until 1946 when he left Clemson to serve as news director at the University of Florida.
In 1951 Public Relations and Alumni Affairs came into being when the News Bureau and the Alumni Office coordinated the functions of publicizing athletic events, issuing college publications, and fund raising. Walter Cox was named as the first director in 1954; he served until 1955. The following year, Joe Sherman returned to Clemson to head the office. At that time the name was changed to Public and Alumni Relations.
In 1967 the office split into two departments with different functions: Alumni Affairs, headed by Sherman, and Public Relations, headed by Melvin C. Long. In November 1978, in keeping with national trends and also to reflect a variety of responsibilities, Public Relations became University Relations.
For further information on these changes, please consult the organizational charts in the Clemson University Faculty Manual.
4.75 Cubic Feet
English
Most of the information in this series originated with Public Relations and the Clemson News Bureau. A lesser amount-information cards of early faculty and staff-is presumed to have been created by Arthur Buist Bryan, Professor of English and editor for the South Carolina Agricultural Extension Service and Experiment Station. The information was sent to the library in piecemeal fashion; it was then collated and arranged by the name of the individual, and maintained in a vertical file of archival material.
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