Post-political Life
After leaving the governorship, Clements lent considerable personal effort to support a variety of Republican candidates seeking office in Texas. He resided in Dallas with his second wife, the former Rita Crocker (born October 30, 1931), who was first lady of Texas during both of his administrations. She was subsequently appointed to the University of Texas Regents by Governor George W. Bush. Clements was known for his acerbic, energetic personality, which Democrats abhorred but Republicans tended to cheer. In 1993, he had supported the conservative Congressman Joe Barton in the special election for the U.S. Senate to succeed newly-resigned Democrat Lloyd Bentsen. Barton lost out to Kay Bailey Hutchison. Clements also supported the embattled Texas Supreme Court Justice Steven Wayne Smith, who was purged by Governor Rick Perry in the 2004 Republican primary.
Whereas Governor Perry first endorsed former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani of New York City for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination, Bill Clements was as early as 2006 already raising funds for the eventual nominee, U.S. Senator John McCain of Arizona. After Giuliani withdrew from the race, Perry joined Clements in endorsing McCain.
In June 2009, Clements donated $100 million to UT Southwestern Medical Center, the largest civic donation in Dallas history. On April 13, 2012, Daniel K. Podolsky, M.D., President of UT Southwestern Medical Center announced the UT System Board of Regents approved the naming of the new UT Southwestern University Hospital in honor of Clements. On February 16, 2010, Clements and his wife both endorsed Governor Rick Perry's re-election campaign in the 2010 Texas Republican gubernatorial primary against Kay Bailey Hutchison.
In October 2010, Clements' son, B. Gill Clements (born 1941), was murdered at the age of 69 near his ranch in Athens in Henderson County in east Texas. An investor, Clements was also a graduate of Southern Methodist University, married, and the father of three children. He was predeceased by his mother, Pauline Allen Gill Clements, Bill Clements' first wife.
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