Jim Clayton (businessman)
{{short description|American lawyer}}
{{About|the American lawyer|people with a similar name|James Clayton (disambiguation)}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Jim Clayton
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| birth_name =
| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1934|03|2}}
| birth_place = Finger, Tennessee, United States
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| other_names =
| known_for = Founder of Clayton Homes
| alma mater= University of Tennessee
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| spouse = Michell Beth Clayton
| children = Kevin T. Clayton, Amy Stevens, Jimmy Clayton, Karen Davis
| parents =
| relatives = Joe Clayton (brother - deceased)
}}
James L. Clayton Sr. (born March 2, 1934) is an American businessman, investor, and philanthropist. He founded Clayton Homes in 1966 and built it into the United States' largest producer and seller of manufactured housing, a formerly publicly traded company that was sold to Berkshire Hathaway in 2003 for $1.7 billion.{{cite web|url=http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/78/claytonhomes.html |title=Fast Company Magazine Issue 78 January 2004 | Business + Innovation |website=Fastcompany.com |date=2014-04-08 |accessdate=2015-12-05}}
Early life
James L. Clayton was born in 1934 in Finger, Tennessee. His father was a sharecropper. As a child, he aspired to become a country music singer. After high school, he went to Memphis to attend Memphis State and perform in honky tonks.{{Cite web|date=2004-02-24|title=James L. Clayton, Sr.|url=http://horatioalger.com/members/member_info.cfm?memberid=cla91|access-date=2020-09-02|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040224080910/http://horatioalger.com/members/member_info.cfm?memberid=cla91|archive-date=2004-02-24}} After becoming ill at the end of the first year, he transferred to the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, where he was a member of the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity and received an engineering degree in 1957. He received a J.D. degree from the University of Tennessee College of Law in 1964.{{cite web |url=http://alexander.senate.gov/index.cfm?FuseAction=Speeches.Detail&Speech_id=38&Month=4&Year=2003 |title=United States Senator Lamar Alexander |website=Alexander.senate.gov |date=2012-12-18 |accessdate=2015-12-05 |archive-date=2008-03-27 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080327043953/http://alexander.senate.gov/index.cfm?FuseAction=Speeches.Detail&Speech_id=38&Month=4&Year=2003 |url-status=dead }}
Career
While a student, Clayton started an informal business of fixing and reselling used cars, establishing a used-car business in 1956. That business grew into a group of Knoxville-area automobile dealerships operated by Jim Clayton and his brother Joe; Jim Clayton sold his interest in the automotive business to Joe in 1981.
Clayton branched into the mobile home business in 1966.
Clayton published an autobiography, First a Dream (FSB Press, {{ISBN|978-0-9726389-0-6}}), in 2002, cowritten with Bill Retherford. Reportedly, the book motivated Warren Buffett to buy Clayton's company,[http://www.sigepfoundation.org/resource/resmgr/docs/doud-clayton_endowment_journ.pdf] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071017160759/http://www.sigepfoundation.org/resource/resmgr/docs/doud-clayton_endowment_journ.pdf|date=October 17, 2007}}{{cite web|url=http://jimclayton.com/ |title=First A Dream |publisher=Jim Clayton |date=2015-06-08 |accessdate=2015-12-05}} but a 2004 article in Fast Company magazine suggested that the story was not as simple as was widely reported.
Philanthropy
Clayton has made many charitable contributions in the Knoxville area, including a $3.25 million donation for construction of the Knoxville Museum of Art; a $1 million donation to the University of Tennessee College of Law for its Center for Entrepreneurial Law; and a $1 million donation to East Tennessee Baptist Hospital to establish the Clayton Birthing Center. With his wife, Clayton also made two $1 million donations to Freed-Hardeman University in Henderson, Tennessee, which is near his home town.[http://www.fhu.edu/news_events/05/events_pressReleases.asp] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080411212454/http://www.fhu.edu/news_events/05/events_pressReleases.asp|date=April 11, 2008}}
2020 helicopter crash
On August 3, 2020, Clayton, along with his brother Joe, Clayton Holdings VP Flynt Griffin, and developer John McBride, were onboard Clayton's Eurocopter EC130 when it crashed into the Tennessee River near the Sequoyah Hills neighborhood of Knoxville around 7:45 p.m.{{cite news |last1=Hara |first1=Amanda |title=Cofounder of Clayton Homes dies in Tennessee River helicopter crash |url=https://www.wvlt.tv/2020/08/04/helicopter-crashes-into-tennessee-river-according-to-knox-county-dispatch/ |accessdate=August 4, 2020 |work=WVLT-TV |date=August 4, 2020}}
Clayton, Griffin, and McBride resurfaced soon after the crash near to the wreckage, and were rescued by a nearby pontoon boat. Joe Clayton's body was recovered next to the wreckage of the helicopter at around 9:30 p.m. He was pronounced dead on arrival.{{cite news |title=Prominent businessman Joe Clayton died in helicopter crash; brother Jim Clayton survived along with 2 others |url=https://www.wbir.com/article/news/local/kfd-helicopter-crashes-into-tennessee-river-near-alcoa-highway/51-26562eb8-7beb-4b28-86bc-b5c6e61e52bc |accessdate=August 4, 2020 |work=WBIR-TV |date=August 3, 2020}}
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [http://jimclayton.com/ Clayton Family Foundation]
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Category:American company founders
Category:American manufacturing businesspeople
Category:American businesspeople in real estate
Category:American retail chief executives
Category:Businesspeople from Knoxville, Tennessee
Category:Lawyers from Knoxville, Tennessee
Category:Philanthropists from Tennessee
Category:University of Tennessee alumni