W.W. Clements, 88; Salesman Became Chairman of Dr Pepper

W.W. “Foots” Clements, 88, former chairman and chief executive officer of Dr Pepper, who is credited with turning the Texas-based soft drink into an international beverage, died Thursday in a Dallas hospital of complications from dementia.

An Alabama native, Clements started working for the company as a salesman in July 1935.

In 1942, he was promoted to zone sales manager, working with bottlers in Virginia, North Carolina, West Virginia and Pennsylvania. Two years later, he was promoted to the company’s Dallas headquarters.

Clements became president and chief operating officer in 1969 and chairman of the board in 1974. He was chairman until 1986 and a director until 1995.

In retirement, he raised money to restore the company’s original bottling plant in Waco, Texas. Idle for 20 years, the building reopened in 1991 as the Dr Pepper Free Museum and Free Enterprise Institute.