Clements died Thursday. Funeral arrangements are pending with Scanio-Harper Funeral Home. Burial will be in the Texas State Cemetery in Austin.
He also served three terms as a state legislator and two terms as Temple mayor from 1970 to 1974.
“Jamie was involved in all aspects of structuring the clinic, hospital and medical school during its embryonic stages,” said Dr. Alfred Knight, Scott & White president. “The whole modern structure of our institution came under his leadership. He connected with everybody, and there was never a problem he couldn’t solve.”
Since joining Scott & White on July 25, 1960, Clements was the consistent, reasoned voice in the ever-evolving landscape of medical jurisprudence. Along the way, he became a nationally recognized authority on health-care law, providing significant leadership in developing a unique field of legal practice.
“From 1960 to 1998, there was not a single successful endeavor - the medical school, interstate highway projects, Scott & White expansions, the health plan - nothing good that happened in Bell County that he was not part of,” said Jimmy Carroll, former chief justice of the Third District Texas Court of Appeals who succeeded his longtime mentor and friend in the job as Scott & White counsel in 1998.
Upon his retirement in 1997, U.S. Rep. Chet Edwards called Clements “a role model for all of us: a man of integrity, decency and compassion.”
During his tenure, Scott & White weathered vast changes. He guided the institution through its evolution from makeshift, outdated hodge-podge buildings south of downtown to a large multi-specialty group practice and integrated health-care system.
Clements also oversaw the legal aspects of the partnership of the Texas A&M University System Health Science Center in Temple and its College of Medicine as well as the establishment of the Scott & White Health Plan in 1981 and the creation of its regional clinic system. Establishing each of these took years of careful negotiations and building coalitions among businesses, elected officials, administrators, physicians and prospective patients.
Clements became mentor to Jerry Pickle, now Scott & White senior corporate counsel, who joined Scott & White in 1977.
“Jamie had a clear idea of what made Scott & White successful, an attitude of ‘let’s make it work.’ He brought organization to health-care law and made it broader so that it represented the hospitals, physicians and the whole range of health care throughout the institution. That’s what made him special,” Pickle said.
Knight agreed. “We’re trained to be so specialized now. Often we don’t step back and see issues as a whole. Jamie was remarkable because he could. He was so important to the leadership at the time.”
Clements served as a professor of medical jurisprudence at the Texas A&M University College of Medicine and a member of the Government’s Committee on Organ Transplantation, helping the state forge laws governing an expanding medical field that protected donors’ and patients’ rights.
Born Dec. 9, 1930, in Crockett, he was elected to the Texas House of Representatives from his district in November 1951 while still an undergraduate at The University of Texas. He was only 20, the youngest legislator ever. He turned 21 the next month, which made him eligible to be sworn into office in January 1952.
He forged powerful friendships with the then more progressive, liberal Democratic contingent pushing for civil rights and against McCarthyism. While serving as a lawmaker, he also graduated from UT Law School in 1955.
After a stint in the Marine Corps, he was re-elected to the Texas House in 1959. Clements left office and settled in his law practice in McAllen, where he was recruited by Scott & White.
At the time, Scott & White was a conglomeration of 31 buildings spread over five city blocks along Avenues G and H. Some structures, dating back to the 1890s, showed their age. The physicians wanted a modern facility on undeveloped acreage along South 31st Street. To compound problems, fund drives were sputtering, and Scott & White needed millions before it could break ground.
Moving into makeshift offices, he guided the institution through the tricky maze of fundraising as well as the legal and public information aspects of a growing multi-specialty practice. Trustees created the Legal Department in May 1962, naming Clements counsel, one of the few attorneys working full-time at hospitals nationwide. He was trusted as the adviser who guided physicians to seeing “the big picture.”
By December 1963, when Scott & White moved to its present location, Clements was the one-man legal and public relations officer.
By the late 1960s, health care was rapidly evolving, due to three factors: a convergence of advanced medical technology and practice, 1968 Medicare legislation, and emergence of for-profit hospitals and health maintenance organizations.
Aware of the ever-shifting field, Clements proposed a formal health law organization, the National Health Lawyers Association. He provided leadership in the association’s early years and served as president in 1980-81, at the same time Scott & White was launching its health plan.
“Jamie was invaluable to Scott and White and played a large role in its success,” said Dr. Luther Brewer, former medical director of the Scott & White Health Plan. “He was a personal friend of movers all over Temple, the state of Texas and the nation. And his was a remarkable ability to cut right to the heart of any issue and to give great common-sense and legal advice.”
He served as president of the board of the Presbyterian Children’s Home and Service Agency of Texas. He served on Advisory Council on Community Affairs; Texas Board of Human Resources; and the Texas Board of Mental Health and Mental Retardation. He was chairman for the committee on Liaison with the Medical Profession for the Texas Bar Association. In 1999, the UT Ex-Students’ Association honored him with its Distinguished Alumnus Award.
Through all his many honors and accolades, he maintained that his wife, the former Ann Trigg, his two daughters and son and his grandchildren were his best assets.
Burial for Clements will be at the Texas State Cemetery, 909 Navasota St., Austin, at 10 a.m. Monday with Marine Corps honors.
Memorial service will follow at Grace Presbyterian Church, Temple, at 2 p.m. with the Rev. Dr. Thomas Allen and the Rev. Dr. Ralph Person officiating. Visitation will be from 2-4 p.m. Sunday at Scanio-Harper Funeral Home.
Memorials may be made to Scott & White Development Office, 2401 S. 31st St., Temple; or to the Presbyterian Children’s Homes of Texas, 4407 Bee Cave Road, Suite 520, Austin, 78746-6496.
pbenoit@temple-telegram.com
