Clemmie Dixon Spangler Jr. (April 5, 1932 – July 22, 2018) was an American

billionaire A billionaire is a person with a net worth of at least one billion (1,000,000,000, i.e., a thousand million) units of a given currency, usually of a major currency such as the United States dollar, euro, or pound sterling. The American busin ...

businessman, and the owner of

National Gypsum National Gypsum Company is a company based in Charlotte, North Carolina, that produces drywall gypsum boards in the US. It has 17 gypsum board plants in the US and presents itself as a fully integrated building products manufacturer. It is a private ...

. On the ''

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also re ...

'' 2016 list of the world's billionaires, he was ranked #722 with a net worth of

US$ The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

2.4 billion. He was president of the

University of North Carolina The University of North Carolina is the multi-campus public university system for the state of North Carolina. Overseeing the state's 16 public universities and the NC School of Science and Mathematics, it is commonly referred to as the UNC Sy ...

from 1986 to 1997.

Early life

Clemmie Spangler was born in

Charlotte, North Carolina Charlotte ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Located in the Piedmont region, it is the county seat of Mecklenburg County. The population was 874,579 at the 2020 census, making Charlotte the 16th-most populo ...

, in 1932. He graduated from the

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States ...

, where he was a member of

Sigma Alpha Epsilon Sigma Alpha Epsilon (), commonly known as SAE, is a North American Greek-letter social college fraternity. It was founded at the University of Alabama on March 9, 1856. Of all existing national social fraternities today, Sigma Alpha Epsilon is t ...

fraternity, and received an MBA from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

. His father, Clemmie Dixon Spangler Sr., founded C. D. Spangler Construction Company in 1947.

Career

In 1958, Spangler joined his father's company, C.D. Spangler Construction, and became president, a post he held for 28 years. Spangler went on to head his father's bank, the Bank of North Carolina, merging it with NCNB in 1982. NCNB is now part of

Bank of America The Bank of America Corporation (often abbreviated BofA or BoA) is an American multinational investment bank and financial services holding company headquartered at the Bank of America Corporate Center in Charlotte, North Carolina. The bank w ...

. He entered public service as a member of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education in the 1970s. From 1982 to 1986 he served as chair of North Carolina's Board of Education. He then served as president of the

system, from 1986 to 1997. As president, he was a staunch advocate for keeping tuition costs low, and he donated his salary to individual campuses in the UNC system. In 1995, Spangler took over

for $1.2 billion, through Delcor Inc., a private investment company controlled by him. Spangler had been chairman of National Gypsum and owned 20% of the company, and his family went on to own the whole company.

Philanthropy

Spangler served as President of Harvard University's Board of Overseers from 2003 to 2004. The

Spangler Center The Spangler Center is a building on the Boston campus of Harvard Business School. Harvard Business School is in Allston, Massachusetts neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, U.S., across the street from the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engi ...

Harvard Business School Harvard Business School (HBS) is the graduate business school of Harvard University, a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. It is consistently ranked among the top business schools in the world and offers a large full-time MBA p ...

is named for him. Through his C.D. Spangler Foundation, he donated to the University of North Carolina, Harvard University, and to Charlotte's Teach for America. As a hobby, he liked to fix old clocks.

Personal life

Spangler was married to Meredith Riggs Spangler.http://www.historync.org/laureate%20-%20CD%20Spangler%20Jr.htm She graduated from

Wellesley College Wellesley College is a private women's liberal arts college in Wellesley, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1870 by Henry and Pauline Durant as a female seminary, it is a member of the original Seven Sisters Colleges, an unofficial g ...

in 1955, and their betrothal was announced in the New York Times in March 1960. She was the daughter of Arad McCutchan Riggs and Frieda Wildy Riggs (1907-2000). They had two daughters, Anna Spangler Nelson, and Abigail Riggs Spangler. Anna Spangler Nelson is a member of the UNC Board of Governors. In 1990, Anna Wildy Spangler, married fellow 1988 Harvard Business School graduate

Thomas C. Nelson Thomas Craig Nelson (born 1961/1962) is an American businessman, and the chairman, CEO and president of National Gypsum, a company wholly owned by the Spangler family, since 1999. Early life He is the son of Mr and Mrs Nels Richard Nelson of Glen ...

, and he has been chairman and CEO of National Gypsum since 1999. In 1995, Abigail Riggs Spangler married lawyer Jeffrey Donald Nuechterlein, son of

Donald Nuechterlein Donald Edwin Nuechterlein (June 20, 1925 – July 7, 2022) was an American diplomat and academic, professor of international relations, Federal Executive Institute, Charlottesville, Virginia, from 1968 to 1988. Early life Nuechterlein was born ...

of Charlottesville, Virginia, who was a professor of international relations at the

Federal Executive Institute The Federal Executive Institute (FEI) is an executive and management development and training center for governmental leaders located on a campus near the center of Charlottesville, Virginia, less than a mile from University of Virginia. FEI of ...

. She has a bachelor's degree from Wellesley College and a master's degree in political science from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

. The C.D. Spangler Jr. Building is named for him and serves as the main building, along with the Meredith Riggs Spangler Building, for the UNC System offices.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Spangler, Clemmie 1932 births 2018 deaths American businesspeople American billionaires Presidents of the University of North Carolina System University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill alumni Harvard Business School alumni Spangler family People from Charlotte, North Carolina