He Takes on Blacks and Whites Alike - 'I've Been the Prodigal Son' Herald Profile on Howard Clement News Clipping

    He Takes On Blacks And Whites Alike 

6y BILL GILKESON 
Herald Raleigh Bureau 

A. J. H!o~!l'd Clement ]Iii 
came preyoared .Bor an .intewi€1W 
wtith a list df the four 
institutions tbll.t ·have had the 
&r~ ian!Pa.ICt o.n iiii:s llie. 

: -'l'hey are his famizy, HQIW!a,r.d 
U11l1verurilty, 'I1he N. C. Mu1Juai 
Iliife IIJSlW"ance Co. and t!hie 

· Durihlam Oommittee on the 
Afiflaim of B1adk: P~le. 

Ailil fuur a-re old, w~ 
established - someCi:mes even 
conservative. '!'heir histories 
ttre intertwined. 

'I111ey are a·hl b l a c k 
inst-itutions. 

Clement. thei:r child at 43, is 
llQW a member of the North 
Carolina House o1 
Rel!)resentattves ch<arged Wl~ 

1 represenoog ail!! the peqple of 
I Durham County. 

Sin~ his eme11ge.nce in pulbUtiJc 
' Hfe in Durham in bhe 196Us, 
. Clement has engaged Duthtam's 
' white in~tiilUJbions :in battle. He 
, has done so w1th a vehemence 
; that makes s'Ome whites dOulbt 
l his desire to represent llhem. 

Yet the four b.l.ack institutions 
U1at have sha1,)e(l b1m ha•ve also 
felt some of his oosla~ghts. 

• Wh~tever the eonte:xt, this 
i man with t!IJ too!Jhy smiile and 
• t·he intense manner se€11IlS 
' a1wa.:'f~S to h<we been the re\b€il. 

He doesn't deniY that, but he 

PLLI.s lt dtifferentl(y: "1''1<~~ been 
bhe Prorliig.l'la Son." 

*** "My •abher a•liway.s told •me: 
'You can't f.i~t .a fire hy 
nmll!i.ng awny from it,' " said 
HQW!ard Clement. 

AlrbhuJr J . H. Clement Jr.. is 
one of the better knOM'!Il blaJok, 
men in Qba:rlleston. S. G., Wlb.ere 
hls son grew up. . 

N. . C Q\futwaQ ffi{)IVed the 
ooni.or Cll.ement there in . the 
1000s to run ibs fi-eld oflfilce. He 
wa•s president oif bhe state 
NMOP dlur'.ing the 1940s. He 
ran fur Congress in 1948 on the 
national DemQm'ati~ ticket 
ag~:rin&t the poww£ul Rep. 
Mendel Rivers, who was 
&UIPJPOrtil!llg the Dixiecmls. 

In 1a.ter y-ears, A. r 11 !h u r 
Olemel1t be'Cllme a Re{)!Ub:l!iloan. 
He nOIW writes an o-ooastonal 
oonsevV'ati:ve oo1wmn :fior ·the 
'c::barleston newspapers. Regi­
nald !Barrett, a black eon­
ltractor and ally of Arthur 
Clement's, said, "]f H~ward :is 
outspoken, then he'IS a dhip off 
the okl bl00k.1' 

DurJ111g the 1948 c.alffilll'1llilgn, 
Howaro Cle•menJt said, tihe Ku 
Elux roN!n folilowed the famhl·y 
aroulJJd.. He said he remernlbers 
:hea:rring a KilanSJII1an tlhreaten 
hls fiaibh€11' .ii{ he spoike at a ra'lllry. 

Clement Doesn't D~rive 
Wife D~lore• Picks Him Up After Work 

His Pathce1· ~tp()kt: a.Tl!y•wa.y ii!ld 
nobh:ing hatPJpened . 

"He Sl€)pt with • shotg-un , 
beside his il>ed," Clement 
recaliled. 

Howard Olement sai·d he had 
lo walk IP3~t white Clharileston 
Hi!gh School <Home of the 
Rebe.l!sl to get to bilia~k ANerry 
Hi·gh. IJJt '\'VIaS not aliW.ays a­
pleasant stoo~l. he sa!i.d, arud 
once he dwciked just in t1me to 
miss a brick. 

Yet, he said, his ~ther DelVer 
tried to a·1ter his l'OUte. 

"!'never leamed what it was 
to stao/ in my pla·ce," said 
Olernent. 

He said it was" iimJPre&Sed 
up:oo rum tha·t ih!i!s father's 
independell!ce - omd his oi\Wl -
were made possi!ble by Q bla.dk 
institution. '11he Miubual. 

When he was a•t H~ward 
University, Clement sati.d, !b:i·s 
:fatller sent hnm .a Life 
magazine art:iJale a1bout Jews, 
along with a letter tlmt 
stllggested that blacks ought to 
lea.m tre Je\W.sh less'On: BuiJd 
a tra diti'On. 

Not long ~fter !!hat his 
grandifa·bher, A. J. H. Sr., aSik-ed 
him never to 1eave 'Dhe .Mutual. 
He promised nev& to, Cll.ernent 
~id, and the ~ld man died 
bei&>re he sa:w him a.gain. 

* *,* 
'l.The name Al'thur Jofrm 

Howard Olement has been with 
The Mutual 11 years - alloeit 
with d:i!Fferent of the gilven 
names chosen. A. J, iH. Sr. 
joined th.e oompany e~ght yea 1·s 
after its founding. 

Re was t!:Je son of Rufus A. 
Clement pi Ol~Wel>atul, N .. C. 
Twewe or 13 years atler 
emandpali.on from s.baver~. 
Howard Ol'!llment said. hi<> great 
grand:father ood a, m a s s e d 
enough land to doillate some of 
it to the county for a· bla•Cik 
SJchool. It was cahled R. A. 
dleanent High Scoool until i t 
was i.ntegrated in the late WSOs, 
'A~hen the county ohanged the 
name to West Ro,wan Jml'i'Or 
Hilgih School. Arthur and 
H()Ward Clement have protested 
9 t leru~tih, but to no a va ill. 

Integration also stlJI.W)€d the 
pradi:ce of sen<hllllg the · senli.o·r 
ola.sS to Dul'ham to meet 1lhe 
descendants or R A. Ol€11nent 
at 'I1he MIUJtuail bwiJ'ding. 

H()ll,vard 'Cll.ement's uncle, 
W1lll!iam A.. Clement, is an 
exeootdive viiCe president of The 
Mutual. William Clement's 
wife, t"M ful1mer Josephiine 
Dobbs, is the aunt o.f Abl!anta 
M~ Maynard Ja-ckoon and 
sister -of :MattiwMa [)olbbs, 
renowned sopnano. Mrs. Cle­
ment is a menrJber >Of tlre 
Dunham city •B o ll r d of 
Education. 

H:owand Clement's w&f.e, 1lhe 
fo!'mer Dolor-es Wiilliams was 
OilliCe secJ:etat'lY to C . C . 
Spa·uilid'iJllig, then the president Olf 
The Mutual. Her father was tlhe 
COIQPaiey"'S first .stamtilii.an. 
They have three Qs·ughte11s: 

Imna, 15; Saundra, 1:3; and 
Mal."lce~ta, 8. 

Tradition. 

* * * "I don't bhillk y10u can call 
me a racist," said Howard 
Clement. " C oall me an 
ethnocentrist.'' 

His r a c i a 1 rons<::ioUSifle£1' 
real!ly began to emerge in bhe 
1950s, he sa"hl. 

At Howard Un1ver.sity, he 
said, he beg1an his career as a 
sort of insurgent - pro'test:i!iJ,g 
the qua.J.ity of tlhe food and the 
f.ir.in:g of a footh>alft coaoh. 

Toward the end of his career · 
in the law scihool thffi:e, he was 
maroh:i.ng in de.monstrations in 
support of the GreellSiboro sit­
ins. 

But it was the 1963 mal'Cih on 
Washin!gton that did the most 
to sensitize hli.m, he said. 

"I was standing just ns cloBe 
to Martin Lubber· King as I arm 
to you \~men he gawe his 'I H.a<ve 
a Dre!liffi' sq>eedh," Olemen't 
told a .l'€1P<>r.ter across blis desk. 
He closed his eyes and rea•clhed 
up as i£ to drtl·w d!mv.n ·a spnt 
from bhe slcy. ·"'11hat just went 
an tlhroug~h me. I jll!St knew that 
li!fe wouild never b:e bhe same 
for .me any m()l"e." 

The first l!hmg he did when 
he returned to Dur'ham was to 
take a dary od:lf from The 
Mutual's le~a:l depal'biil€nt t~nd 
w11He letters to loca~ hla,cJk 
businessmen askjng them wlhy 
they l!w.drrll'•t tna:I1<lhed. 

"Of cou.r,se, that wasn't well 
received," Ole<ment sati:d. 

'fhat was tihe QPening stint or 
a dllillficUI.t ern lor Clement and 
fo-r eveeyone else. He belgian 

, 
n 

in my piQce," 

ent said. 

SECTION D - 12 PAGF;S 

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, ·1977 

Pro-mised Grandfather He'd Never Leave 
Howard Clement Is Third Generation With 'The Mutual' 

Black People since the 1950s. 
Wheeler is now indispensable, 

Uhe commit tee that he said, and has. gro>\vn 
pl·ack ooyJC'O'tt of treiil€ndouS1iY since he has 

~C:J.'C!IlallllS in l96B £9. , k110wn \lim· I · , 
learned first-hand Clement was amcHJ•g those 

am)\1\l,tne C'1ass S'Ystem Ltt blaJC:k behin'Cl the push to challl';;e thB 
.uu.ll.,u. Once, he said, a group organiz>ation's name from 

bJra.oks me.e.tirt~g at Sl. Durham Committee on 1\e.gro 
s AMiE Ohm·.:h asked Affairs. 
leave because he didn'.t 
He said he was ti1!00wn 

when, true to fol'm, 

at The Mutual. 
prepared fur lris 

e~~:•,tR-ll:llS e)ther. "'l1l1ey more or 
Jes:sll~le~~al;j~d me," be recallls. 

· wlha.t he was dori11g 
in joop!a·JX!ty and may 

vllret:aNied his rise in the 
is nQW head of 

the· \'41l'~ 'iln~s oopanbment). 
Hrlollmn•r,.•c iba>Cik:ground had• not 

her for s u o h 
be s~aid, and she 

partioulal11y. His father 
him to retUII11 to 

{Jbr,J~>ton and prnci.ice lCIIW. 
survived, hO'Wever. 

care of lli!mselif," said 
WiJilii:am Clement. "tf 

he woUJl'()!n't have 

Clement said he 
his · oopheiW' s · adiviam 

to be lo10koed on as an 
to tte roflliP8ny. 

s-aid tJhlat, a.liter some 
ciilfttrences, he 'has rome to 

John Wheele.r, 
of the Durfham 
on the A«.a'inol of 

* * * Tbe book he pla-ns lo write, 
Clement r;aid. \l'illil revea1l the 
f.lJill stor.y of wlhy he has never 
gJOtten a li:cense to pra•ctice law 
ill NQlrth Oawlina. A PT<Jilninent 
Wmte 1a·~er, n01W dead., told 
hllim he woul.d do everythillJg lhe 
could to keep rom out O<f the 
bar, Clement said, but !he 
w.ouildrrll't name p.;nne.s. 

* * * Peo~1e wibo have tangled with 
Ho~'lard Clement come away 
talllcing not so mudh about the 
content as about the sbyll.e of 
blis aclioll!S. His ma·ooer leads 
them to quesbion his liming, his 
judigtmell!t, even his sel!f-con~rol. 

Find!ill!g e:lmmples is no 
problem: 

- When ~b Scott was 
governo.r, he · i111V'ited Sen. 
Russe1! Lon~ of Lo.uis.i:ana to a 
JefJ'erson-Ja,ok:son Day Di.mJ.e~·. 
As state pady V'i!ce clw:inma;n, 
Clemenrt; was prevali!l.ed UtPOn to 
sit on the platfo11111, even bbollllgih 
he w'Rs oot enbhusinst<ilc about 
Long ~r. fur that matter, a!bo.ut 
Jerl'feMOn or Ja~n. When the 
governor was :in ·t r o d .u c e d , 
eve!1yl(lne stood, & x '0 e IP t 
Ole~nent. 

- More uhan once, ·he has 
become angr.y ·at a meetmg and 
l'item-li]jy tli:I'lled his l:facl\. -
turned his clwi:r around - on 
the ofifending spealHn·. 

- Cll.eme:nt was once asked 
to comment for a new!U)lljper 
sooey a1bout attorney E. K 
Poo.re, w.iltlh. whom he'd servled 
on bhe commission to puSh city­
county consolidlati10n. Olement 
had some laUi&:ltony words 
about Powe as a moder.ati'll!g 
force on the oommissi.on. Blllt 
then, out of the ,l:Ji]ue, he 
a.ttaC'ked Powe roll' h i s 
m~ m ~e e~~re 
Hope Valley Countrjy Oliul:>. 
<·Cleme.rut today keeps a list of 
the c:lub's members besti<le his 
desik f'()r handiy reference.) 

He believes he went f<wthest 
out on t:1. li1mlb, Clemelllt sai:d, 
when he alpipeared oooore a 
gi"OU[P of" prominent black and 
white WOIIDen dur.ing tlw boycott 
o.f locaJ meoohants. l'll!rs. E~na 
SpaU!lding was a leader of tJhe 
groll!p, as w~s his Aunt 
Jo5ejp~lline. 

"I don't know wha.t came 
over me," he said, "but I 
adopted a thoroughly 
belligerent a'tbitude tQIWiard ~he.se 
women." 

He wae genera~liy cr.ilticai of 
blaok women \W1o ape wh~te 
women, he ~id, and he rowed 
o£t the perf<mmalliCe by oal!llng 
t·hem "colored crookers." 

, SrnilinJg oontr.iteliy. Qlement 
said, "Df I h:ad that to do over, 
I would do it dli.Bferent~. 
Riwles are still belln!g felt nine 
years later." 

J\fust of the tilime, boowever, 
Clement doesn't 81P0logia !llor 
his manners. 

Said his uncle. "Howard has 
certainly goown U!P . I thinik he·s 
more tactful." 

~·*; * ~ 
Clement said it was in t11c 

late J£GOs that he bc•gan to ~ee 
the Democratic p·arly a.<; a 
vehicle for cb'.:mge. 

He got. active in the Youllig 
Democrats. He said he 
remembers a weekler}d ·£unctiQn 
on Bald Head Island 'A1hen his 
was the on:l•y. bla·c>k f<J.rrilly. " We 
had a good time," he said. He 
came ·boaeik with a snapshot or 
his daughter silttin,g on the 
slloU!lder o.f a YIDC leadCl' 
Mmcd Jim Hunt. 

In 1974 he rode a coaUtion of 
bl.a.oks and Wlhute lilbem1s to 
election as . .ohairnnan o.f the 
Durlbam County ,Demo:cr~atic 
parby. 

He defeated Mr:S. A:n1gela 
El!kins, n()IW head Olf the State 
Democratk W10rnen, who later 
became his ally: lVLrs. Elkins 
said !Jhlat, as cl!amrmm, Clement 
was in a position Wihere he !had 
to be evenhanded with blacks 
aoo whites. De.>lPite his: past 
.mi~itan~y. she sa!id, he met the 
test . 

Obhens in the party ttaillk a'b011.1t 
deallllJg w.iJth Cl:ement as ilf it 
were a ·course of assert~veness 
traini.J]g. The beSit wary to 
handle hiiim, s:aid one pa11ty 
o:fficial, is lo " face htm d{)l\~'n. " 

Clement llilkes to talk a'bout 
his rclationshiJp wi,bh C. P. 
El1is, the Kihansman burned! 
union onga'!liizer. 

" I ·called hitrn 'brobher,' " 
Clement said. ' 'The Wa&1i~ton 
~'tar picked it U\P. My father 
called me and said, 'Are yo-u 
crnzy? '. " 

He aLso likes to ta]k Qbout 
Garland Keit!h, a leader in the 
Whiite Citizeu1s -council wd.til 
whom he ckveloped a raiPIJOrl. 
He went to Keiljfu's fumeral, 
Olemel1t &alild, · "Wihen lit was 
over, M:rs. Keith pullled me 
down and kissed me on the 
cheek." 

One obsemrer sou~t t<> 
balance sto.ries of Clement's 
divis1veness 'by menUon:ing his 
~mcijpation in a·noth.er funeral, 
tlhat of Dr. Eugene Greuli:ng o.f 
Dlllke Umve:rsi>by, anchii.teot of 
the blaok-!Wfhiite l i be r a I 
t>emocra.tfu coal'ition. 

* * * 'Tllat a 11 i a,n c e came 
conJ:pletely apart this year in 
a b~atlle over U1e party 
chaimna-nship. 

'I1he white•liheral DurJJam 
Voters AJ:ll"an:ce <DVA> backed 
John Nilbl<ook for p arty 
chainman, not knowmg that t1:Je 
Dunham Cotnmi.ttee on 'ttlte 
Affairs of Black People would 
diJ. 

Aditer a long delay, Olement 
said ptfuliilcl'Y that m would run 
fur re-el~doon as dhai..rlman and 

• e~d to get !IJhe Durham 
Coanmittee'a endorsement. He 
enraged the DVA by reflusi.ng 
to release lists of delegates to 
the convention. When aSiked at 
the time about ms aetiooo, he 
re£used ro dlisooss it . 

Shortly before the conventi.on, 
the Durham Oommli±tee decided 
not to badk: Clement fur 
oJla.lnnan amer alii. lin&tead, it 
Clhos.e W:iil1ie Lov.ett, an liBM 
employe. 

par.ty reg;u.Jars and dghl~~-mr 
fundamencalists. 

Later. Cleme11t won the 
Durham Commlttel?''!l 
tndur::.emeul JQJ' the \eg;1slati~e 
sent vacated when H. M. 
'·Mickey" Mi10baux Jr. w<~s 

IJ~'.med U. S. Attorney . 'llhe Ml 
party ODganizatio.n went along 
with Lhat deci:si'On - even the 
DVA. Its meuuibers thotllg<ht Uu~ 
v,acanc•y should lbe fJHed with 
a b.laok, but o,vouJd hav~ 
pre:"erred s.omeone other thall 
Clement. 

In a newsdetl.er dur.i.ng the 
summer, the DViA pJXJ1lOUllced 
the "dumpitllg" OiE OJ.ament a!l 
pal'ty clminman one oF the best 
results of the \~hole episode. 

"Dumping" wasn't exactJ.y 
what it was, sad.d Clemoot, but 
fur the dclails, )'XJU'im h:alve to 
waj;t •for his boO'k. 

He wif:bih~ld the · bts o! 
delegates, he said, "to protect 
tile integrity of those lists •.• 
of the delegate-selection pro­
cess." 

CoLtl.dn '-t he ha'Ve made ·copies 
of the llists for distribution 
and kept tJ11e o.nilginals in his 
v~ml!t? " Wel!l, there are so 
many triclffi that can be 
pulled," he &aid. 

Clement said !he i.s a menil:rer 
oif Vhe DVA himself and !intend:~ 
to re-en11&. ljjhis year. He !J.QtJ.)~ 
the war is i:n. 1Jhe ;past, :he ~id. 

"We agree on most issues." 
[ro said. " 'Ilh,e question is wlho'• 
goin1g to ~ a.t tha oontrol 
mechani:..c:on." 

* * * "Nolx!dy ga'Ve me boot seat. " 
Clement said o,f his i*lati~ 
appointment. "No~ in th• 
Durlba.m Cmmni:ttee ·ga~Ve it to 
n1e." 

]ndeed, quite a few pe~le 
were Sllll:1PriBed that t h e 
co,lllll11ittoo dbose Olement OIVetl.' 
the considerab"zy smoother Eric 
Mi'Chaux, Who~ · b rot lh e r , 
Mtckey, lbadlly wanted to see 
:Jrilm as ms S1l!CJC.eSSQ!'. 

lit is koown that one of tlhe 
cllieil a~nts a .g a~ n & t 
a!em-ent Wli.tbin the Dt.m.iham 
Ooonmittee was ilhat !he itJ 
"UillelectaR:)le." He i! s o 
uoott:ractitve to w1Mtes, the 
al'gum.ent wmt, thlat he can't 
atbraot enough o.f ~heir votes to 
ihol d onto the . black seat. 
Clement &a:id lhe ooesn"t beilieve 
t!ha·t. 

He said •he has not decided 
i!f he wiilil. nun for a fuM term 
next year. 'I1he deciSi.on deu->ends 
on what he beam n'Qm Th9 
Miutuail and from the Dunham 
Committee, !he said. 

He never :prtml!ised not to nun, 
he saitl, and oo one ever asked 
him to make such a promise. 

In tite meantime, Clement 
said, he is ~ soma he]\p 
from Malvin Moore. a ~Ul1it 
Miutool pribl.ie rmtions exu;>ert. 

Mtlhougb !be doosn't dnhve a 
ear, Clement s a ~ d 
tro!lJSp()rtation to Ra:tei:gh won •t 
be a problem. He i8 tl()t will!ling 
to taik. JllUl"h aibout why he 
doesn't drive - just U\at 'he 
hasn't lost his license because 
of any :ill!fraetlon. He stUd lt+ 
was om:e in atll aooi.dent . 

'My Family Is The Most Important Thing In My Life' 

"W• ought t.o b& ~ent 
1JhmkeM," be saM. "Of ~. 
peqple lll!i.V- Y'C)U'Ire Mt ~g 
f>ffoot:ilv.. .su~ . . . Willen :b the 
rt!§ht t:l!rM to ~k 1M wron.ll 
QUWOD't" 

Mter !:bat iha!ru>ened, Clement 
1 eft t'Oiwn until. just bef.o11e the 
~nvention. at whiCih Lovett won 
witlh u 1liMOO* M bla<!lkf.l , 

When asked "\Wlat he ilnt.end,f 
to do in bhe Genera~ A.sseni:>lw. 
he t alks aibout eqUa~g 
edtUCation ~ tllfl .stat~ 
- not just :between bta:elkls nn.rl 
wihites, hut amc>ll!g PMP!e in 
dilierent ~~1 areas. 

"We wiJil 11>e bl.rilding 'bri d~~rt 
II'\ ~ en-ti.~ rommun.it.y," h8 
soid_ Clement'• Pinr Ponr Prowe" Delights Daughter• (from left) S&undra, M~rcell& A.nd 

f 1; 
.... l(tltl! t' f ' i. 

1 
I.., 



Captain Magic, Alias Dr. Stephen Lehane 
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By HUGH A. MULLIGAN ' glass running ~vithout in~rruption from roo.f to street, the, 
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60-storv glass,she.athed John Hancock Tower rose over tradition- ·SO that eventually all 10,344 panes l1ac;l to ·be replaced . at 
proud ·Back Bay, but. just about everything else did. Li!'e, . for of $7.3 million. · ' · 
instance. 400-pound wmdow panes by the dozens, law su~ts mto "In short," Cobb said gr)mly, "the biggest building in 
.the millions, delavs that doubled eosts and drove off tenants, built by the biggest employer, the company people love 
the agony of having his glass dream house bo.a.~ded over with was falling on its butt" . · . · . 
plywood then declared a fire hazard, and the fmal ecstas~ of The Hancock observatory, already a· 
havi11g the building opened, occupied and deemed a masterpiece a(fotds ·spleildid views of., sailbo&ts ' on-<-tbe . 
by the critics after fellow archHects said he prostituted himself in the Public Gardens, the Bunker Hill monumeil•t, 
for accepting the commission. · at her berth in Gharlesto\vn, Charles Bulfinch's 

"There even was a time when we thought the building might domed ..State House, the Bulfinch frouts along Beacon 
have to be taken dQ<wn," Cobb said, standing before it in the a clear day, you can see New .Hampshire. 
sunshine of Oopl~y Squa·re and looldng back on the darkest day Any day from here Henry Cobb can see a good deal 
in the life of any modern architect. His incredih<ly thin, icily life · laid out before him. ' There is the Longfellow Bridgll<md 
elegant great blue-green curtain of glass - "a mirror balanced Horticultural Hall, built by "Uncle Ned," Edward Wheelv.tlr;ht, 
on edge," the Boston Globe critic called it ~ perfectly refleeted the architect on his mother's side of the family. There 
the apse · of Hoory Richardson's century-old Trinity Church and MI'li s.cience bt1ildings, the H:arvat'd Tower apartments, 
the puffs of white clouds in the sunset sky over the Cha~les world hea~quarters of the Christian Science Ghlll'!Ch . 
River basiil, just as he had planned it. reflecting pool, all built by the P.ei firm, anct the new city 
· Acro.ss the way on the steps of Charles McKim's exquisite public that restored the Fanguil Hall area, the .· urban renewal 
library; a lecturer in fine arts from Dartmouth College was for which Cobb was largely responsible. 'Th~ Pei nJ>r-rnPr~ 
praising Cobb's Hancock Tower to a summer school class . - -designee[ the Kennedy Memorial Library, have bee~ Boston 
''note how the rhomboid shape gives an eerily, two-<limensional important architects since ·Bulfinch 200 ye!U's befor¢." 
effect, as if the other side of the building wasn't there" - and, . Further up the: Charles rise the elustered spiresi of .. ~ ...... ~. 
surprisingly, putting the knock on the Old South Church _just where undergra·duate Cobb first met I.M. Pei, then 
opposite: "Ruskin was right; classical architecture is essentially assistant professor "but by far and away the best 
pagan and should not be invoked for churches." the Yard." . 

Platoons of tourists lil1€d up for the elevators to the top-floor Before he was ao, Cobb was the prinCiple designer ' of 
observatory, reminding each other, unwitti.b.gly within earshot of Ville :Marie1 which restored downtown Montreal, one of the 
the architect, that this was ·the skyscrapet• cabdrivcrs pointed schemes of Wlld Bill Zeckendorf, .the master builder who 
out as the "Woodpecker ~illon," . "Termite Tower," "World's .broke. Zeckendorf liked to refer to himself as a ":ijtooern, 
'l'allest Outhouse," "Home' Office of Lumberman's Mutual" and (!Dd to tl;ie dignified Cobb as "the scion -of an old Bosto(I 
similar allusions to its previous plywood carcass.· As a founding partne-r of the Pei firm, Cobb, now 

Now five years after the gargantuan reflecting p-anes began chief architect for Balti111ore's Wo,rld .Trade Center, 
raining down . inlo the street, 10 years ~fter C.obb's plans left campus at .the State University in Fredonia, N.Y., was 
the drawing board and a little :over a year after the city building respons~ble Jor url>iln renewal !Plans in !Boston and Los 
commissioner threatened to order the tower vacated unless given · •and has lec-tured widely' ori urban revitalization at a 
' 'assurance persons can't be sucked out of the building if glass of universitieS. · '- · · · · · 
falls," Big John, as it is now called, has taken its place in ' Then came the Hancock Tower. "It was a saga long 
the everyday life of Back .Bay. . · the glass began blowing mit," said Cobb. . . 

Almost all floors are occupied, 3,400 offiee workers, ride the The saga really oogan in 1965 when the 52-story 
double-decker elevators at speeds of up to 1,500 feet per minute, Center eclipsed the ~story Hancock lbnilding just, a few 
and the executive dining room on the 59th floor is weighty with away, \vhich had )Jeen Boston's tallest since 1949. :{!1 the 
decisions.and low on -calories) of the following, year, the Pei firm was commissioned to 

Henry Cobb has reeeived the Brunner Award from the .American an office building of two rilillion square feet. The 
Academy o! Arts and Letters for "a signtficimt contribution to -chairman made it perfectly clear th,at the architect· was to 
architecture as an art," and his firm, I.M. Pei & Partncr,s, has up \Vith something taller than Big Pru. 
won a design award for the controversial tower from the Ameriean .. 1 • , · Boston'·s Brahmins, · arch~tects and academicianS were 
Institste of Architects. " · . at the choice of the Copley Square site, ironieally once 

Cautiously the critics have come around, hailing Big John as . o.f the old Westminster Hotel, which was forced to shed its 
"a cut diamond aglitter in our midst" instead of "the most floor because it violated area height regulations. 
embarrassing era in architectural history." The deans of architecture at Harvard and MlT sat on a 

"It does not rumble out ~f the ground and tremble skyward, r if:tbop. review board that rejected the plans. So .did the 
It whooshes," ventured William :Marlin, urban design critic for . Society of Architects. "We had hoped in this tiine of urban 
the Christian Science MonitQr, conceding his praise of the troubled .and crisis for something other than an egotistical mo•nUiberit 
t()wer was made "at the risk of being put to the pillory in some competing with the skyline," said the Society's 
parts of Boston, where the keepers of history and the reapers "The archit~cts who ganged · up on us weren 
of profit have been known to go at each other with the decorum design," Cobb said. ..They thought there was no 
of a dueling match." for this site and that we snould not have accepted the eornmd4J.on. 

Robert Garrett, the Boston. Herald critic, confessed to being Some ealled us whores fpr pandering to a corporate ego 
''a close admirer of the mighty mirrored tower. It may be un- The city refused a building permit · but bac-ked down 
fashionable to say so, but I like those tricky reflections · and that Hancock threatened to move ,to Chicago. Problems multiplied 
sleek shape and suspect that opponents of the buihling do too." the time ground was broken in August 1968. Soon came <!ornpllints 

The New York Times called it ."the finest high rise structm·e that the tower's huge mass was squishing t'he 
in Boston," and crmc Stanley Abercrombie 'in Interiors :rvlagazine of Back Bay and shifting the foundations of o!her tJu••u.••;;.o. 
deemed it "a :rare urban blessing." "It's a beautiful building," appeared in the faeade of Trinity Church, sitting on •'-v" ... -"'n 
admitted architect Henry Stubbens, chairman of the de,sig{l review wooden pilings, and the rector said the historic edifice was 
committee of the Boston Redevelopment Authority, which had New England Bell and the gas and electric utilities all 
opposed its construction, but he still thought it should have been alleging damage to PQwer eables and underground lines. 
located at least a block away. door, the Sheraton Plaza sued for $750,000 in structural ua•=""· 

Yet, to this day, nearly a year after the dedication, architect Hancock s.olved that one by buying the hotel for $6 ••nu•v"'ll"'"u 
Henry Cobb's name appears nowhere in the building, cllanging :i.ts mme hack to the Copley Plaza. Some 

There is too much litigation, too much mystery over who was · Qf steel was needed to stiff<en stairwells and elevator· 
at fault in the acre.s o£ falling glass and, even now, an occasional reduce :the tower's swin·~ and sway. Something called a 
disintegrating window for anyone to point a finger, even in pride, tuned mass damper," a huge shock absor.ber acting like a 
at the man who built New England's tallest and ~ared the home s tabillzer, was introduced on the 58Ut· floor to keep secretiirial 
team, the John Hanc.ock -Mutual Life Insurance ·Co., the ignomy tummies from getting qUeasy lin high ,vinds. 
of livmg another day in the shadow of the 52-story Prudential At one stage :Big John was upright on an operating table 
Center, built 'by rival insurers from Newark, N.J. • 20 miles of cable and 137 sensor devices probing its. "rEOOll~:e 

"Given this absurd goal," concluded Globe architecture critic frequoocy" or vibrations, while laser beams sh~ned up 
Robert Campbell, "the Hancock architect achieved it with shaft to track the tower's motion. "We know more 
enormous skill and elegance." building t.han ever has been known about any 

The spacious lobby instead is given over to a one-ton copy architect said with an understpndable ~imace. 
of the Declaration of Independence, featuring John Hancock's bold When windows began popping i:n tbe fall ·of 1972, a year 
signature in gold leaf on stainless steel, and a plaque on· which the SC'heduled opening, everyone ·SUed 1 and counter-sued 
company executives and board members, by name, praise in sight: the client, the architect, the builder, the 
buildings in general as reflecting "lhe society- they serve: they manufaiturer, the glazing contractor. 
are both the essence and the sum of human skill and the vision Cobb's involvement by this time was "m.in.imal: all the 
of those woo plan and shape them," without specifying whose decisions had 'been made long ago." He was busy des:ign:i.rig 
iikill and vision shaped this one. hotel and office complex for Melbourne, Australia, on 

·Cobb, a spare, slow-talking Yankee, born in nearby Brookline of the big wind when his whole career seemed as shattterecl 
of Beacon Hill parents, ignored the slight ann boaTded the lobby his mirrored masterpiece. "We didn' t kn()W what the 
elevator to the observatory. He bought his own ticket, too. at was," he said, reliving the cightmare. "We were terrified someone 
$1.50. In metU!ulou.s detail, he explained how the rhomboid design, would be killed or injured." 
lik.e a box squeezed out of shape, the :slender face aad it.s refiectivt Easter-A Gas and Merrill, Lynch, iPierce, iFen.ner & &nlth and 

!! .:. ;\ ' . ~ 

Golly Bionic _Bonkers . 
Mr. Wizard, Step Asid~ 

.By BARBARA MAYO 
Duke News Bureau 

As an audience of wide.eyed 
preschoolers watches the screen,. 

rnotoreyde roars into view 
ring a figure dad in silver 

cape, yellow boxing trunks, 
glowing ycllow sneakers and 
blue leota<d with the letters 
"OM" ·emblazoned on the front. 

As the rider . zooms closer, hf. 
crash-es into a stack of boxes 
and falls · :to the .gJround, much 
lo :the delight of the children. 

While that scene may sound 
like · a preview or a new · 
Saturday inorning television 
program,. it's ·actuaLly pa:rt of 
an unorthodox program devised 
by a Duke University education 
professor to teach . science to 
children. · 
· The caped cbar.ac.ter is lmown 
as Caarta.in Magic, but out of 
"unifol1ll1." he is Dr, Stel!lhen 
Lehane; an ,assistant professor 
of edueation at Duke. · 

Despite the outlandishness of 
his .approach, he's serious about 
the val$ of using Capta~n 
Magic to make · science more 
palatable to kids. 

"The magic o.f learning is to 
make it fun," Lehane said. 
"Captain Ma~ic is pttclled to 
the level most kids beHeve. It's 
ai:tned at what kids find 
attractive." · 

As Captajn Magie, Lehane 
tours preschools, kindergartens 
and clement!U'Y schools. After 
being introduced by way of 
f.ilm, he apJXl3l'S in person in 
full regalia, . ma~c wand 
included, to \enthrahl. the pint­
sized audience with tricks .from 
his magic box. 

What sets · Captain Magic He feels that the traditio111al 
apart from the ordinary rabbit- methods of teaching reienee are 
i!l-'the-hat · vaa·iety magician is not effective with todlay's more 
that each of his "tricks" is so_phisU ·cated children. 
really a Siinwle e)(!pe!iment "Children learn a fantastic 
based on a scientillc tl>rinciple. amount from television. The 

ln hls magic box are a schools are .really competing 
variety of · common household v.rith .television," he said. 
items - lemons, bananas, cups, If the schools are to compete 
straws - that are used in successfully, he said, teachers 
different eom'binations to create must turn to imagination and 
dozens of "magic" resullts. humor - even slapstick - to 

Kids may be amazed when he grab the attention o! kids 
pushes a paper <kinking straw weaned on bionics and the 
tl]rough . a raw potato without Fonz. 
bending the straw, but what he Lehane thinks his caped alter 
i s d o i n .g i s s i m 1> l y ego appeals to the inherent love 
demoMtrating the power of of fantasy and adventure 
concentrated air, trapped common to all ehikken. And, 
inside, to make the straw rigid. there's an aura of mystery 

Unlike other magic i an s , about him. No one is allowed 
Lehane doesn't wo.rry that his . to peek inside his box of tricks, 
audience will discover the so there is a certain mystique 
secrets of his trade. In fact, surrounding the box and. its 
he encoura~s their curiosity. · contents. 
After the show he demonstrates A big part of the problem in 
to the children bow to' repeat teaching science, he fee]s, are 
some of his tricks. Atthough he the "poor !Products an d 
~ves them a 'ma.gic speLl to mediocrity on the market. 
say:, the kids soon discover !that ' ' S c i e !J c e c u rriculum 
the tricks work even if the spell packages in use are often so 
doesn't. · · c o m p li c a t e d mid the 

·~very young children are still eJq>erimental materials s 0 
imaginative enough to beJ.ieJVe difficult to obtain .that' teachers 
there is some ma1g.ic involved, ate intimidated by them," he 
and that they have somehow said. "As a result they tend to 
acquired the power to make ·it neglect sdence altogether." 
wo.rk," Lehane said: · Older The key to making gQod 
children, however, realize it is sden::!e education available is 
not magic, and they begin to to provide teachers with 
wonder what really goes on. materials that they will find 

"What they see defies logic interesting and fun, a(!(;ording 
and pushes them to think," to Lehane, ~·and if the teachers 
Lehane e:xiplained. "At that like it, they'll do it." 
point what they really -start In keeping with this idea, he 
doing is posing . scienillic only ·rises materials that are 
questions and f o r n1 i n g readily available. He also tries 
hypotheses.'' to keep ·the experiments simple 

enough t)lat teachers do n~t 
need a w..asters (,}.egroo m 
phy~ics to understand . and 
explain them to the d~. 
Ano~r problem Lehane 

finds with traditior.al science 
education is t.bc h e a -v y 
emphasis on logieal answ(;lrs to 
all questions. 

"Some problt'i111S r o q u i r e 
logic, but others require 
lntuition. and imagination," 
Leba11e said. "Albert Eills.tein 
attributed llis inspiration . for 
the theory of rek!tivity to ~ 
dream he had in whicll he took 
a trip on a ilght beam." 

It was th~ search for a. 
c u r ri c u l u m that would 
encourage ehildren to devclop 
an imil,gin.'itive Interest :in 
seience that ca'!JSOO Lehane t-o 
don ca;pe and sneakers and 

· become Captain M~c. 
The character ha$ developed 

o·ver a seven.year perio<I, 
starting out as .the Kitchen 
Magician. Unfortunatt'ly, a 
company which manufactured a 
· handy househ11ld item called 
the Kitchen Magician decided 
to sue. so ihe name was 
changed to the Kitchen Wizard. 
By the time Lehane an-ived at 
Duke -last fail, he had emerged 
into the more flamboyant Cap­
tain Magic. 

Lehane does not .charge for 
his personal appearances and 
relies primarily on his own 
resources a n d independent 
backing to finance the venture. 

1n his scierice teaching 
methodology co\.trses ' at Duke 
he is. training students in his 
techniques, perhaps spawning 
£uture generation.s of caiped 
c1assroom crusaders. 

chitectural _Soap Opera 
. \. 

Talking To 'The Neighbors 
{AP Pl!o!A) 

Bostonr& Trinity Church Is Perfectly Reflected In Hancock'.:!. G.Iau 

other prospective tenants changed their minds as the montb.s 
of waiting dragged lnto years. After the reglazing, there was 
the problem of disposing of 600,000 square feet of used plywood 
and 131/2 acres of second-band window panes. 

Proper !Bostonians laughed improperly at Big John's growing 
pains and fumed at the downwwn traffic diversions but then, 
this being ·the home town of the Red Sox, they began to show 
affection far the batter«! underdog. "It's hard not to like a 
building that's so intensely human," observed the Monitor. 

Hancock Tower has be-come a photographer's favorite, Dawn 
tilda its window:~ in gold, and sunset fires at& banked in i.ts 
we.r challeinl minor. iBut th• uga loe.t -on. Laat month. a• 

,\ ' 

four o£ the new windows gave way. Hancock created a new j¢b 
category: window watcher. Equipped wltb walkletalk!es, the 
watchers will warn a oommand post within the building whenever 
a window begins to tremble so traf!i<J can be divetted. and the 
air vents reverBed to reduce pressure cm. the weakened glass. 

And the mystery remains. Why <.'!o the w,ind~>ws fall? Th& 
question wa.s onoo put to Robert Hansen, professor ol civil 
engineer.lng at MIT, one of tb.tt learned diagnosticians >Called into 
the~. 

"'I'he phenomenology is too <:omplicated to give a simple rmswer 
to that," he said, trheddini about as mtteh.llght as the (lld plywood 
wJ.tld()w•. 

' 


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