Obituary

Memorial services for Dr. Vance Clapp, 90, will be at 11 a.m. Monday in First Baptist Church Chapel with Dr. Travis Hart, pastor, officiating. His body has been donated to the Texas Tech Health Sciences Center. Lemons Funeral Home is handling arrangements. Dr. Clapp died late Saturday, April 23, 2005, in Santa Fe House where he had been a resident since 1998. He was a deacon at First Baptist Church. He was born Jan. 13, 1915, in Hitchita, Okla. He graduated from Colorado Springs High School in 1932 and attended Anadarko Business College where he studied accounting and business. He worked as a shipping and accounting supervisor for Baker Hanna & Blake Colo., in Oklahoma City and later was with Swift and Company Dairy and Poultry Plant in Oklahoma City as a cost accountant. He served with the U.S. Navy from 1942-46, supervising payroll operations. He worked for the Examiner-Inspector for the Santa Barbara Defense-Rental Area from 1946-48 and then became a student at the University of Denver from 1948-53 and received three degrees -- a bachelor of science, master of science and doctor of education. He was a teacher-counselor at Central High School in Pueblo, Colo., until 1955 and was assistant professor of business administration at Oregon State University until 1959. From 1959-80, he was with Wayland Baptist University where he was a business teacher and was in administrative positions that included head of Department of Business Administration; director of Special Services; and dean of the Hawaii campus. He retired with the rank of professor emeritus of business administration in 1980. He served as dean of South Plains College in Plainview from 1980-82. He and his wife, Bertha, were married Dec. 24, 1938, in Oklahoma City. She died Oct. 31, 1996. Survivors include a sister, Juanita King of Miami, Okla.; a brother and sister-in-law, William Donald and Julie Clapp of St. Louis, Mo.; and several nieces and nephews. Five siblings, Fern Segal, Hazel Baker, Clark Clapp, Lorraine Neville and Gladys Clapp, are deceased. Memorials are suggested to the Vance and Bertha Clapp Memorial Fund at Wayland Baptist University.