Clarence Herschel Schooley was born on September 17, 1900 in Effingham, Illinois. He attended the University of Illinois from 1918 to 1922, and received a B.J. degree from the University of Missouri in 1925. He married Pauline Van Ness in 1927. He received an M.A. from the University of Maryland in 1953, and a B.A. degree from the University of Illinois in 1972. He served as editor and news managing editor of Mexico (Missouri) Ledger; and special area and staff correspondent for Kansas City Star, St. Louis Globe-Democrat, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and Kansas City Journal-Post, from 1925 to 1936. In 1936 he was also a Republican candidate for Congress from the Ninth District of Missouri. He was the director of publicity and instructor of journalism at Hardin-Simmons University, Abilene, Texas, 1937 to 1942; Quartermaster General historian at Camp Berkeley, Texas, 1940 to 1941; general assignments and night state editor of Abilene (Texas) Reporter-News, and staff correspondent for Oklahoma City Oklahoman and Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 1940 to 1943; and Secretary of the Taylor County (Texas) Republican Committee, 1943. He also held a number of positions as an information officer throughout the remainder of his career: Assistant Public Information Officer, U.S. Navy Reserve, at Miami and Fort Pierce, Florida, 1943 to 1946; Public Information Officer, U.S. Navy Reserve, Executive Office of the Secretary of the Navy, Washington, D.C., 1946 to 1950; Press Officer for Department of Defense under Secretaries James Forrestal, Louis Johnson, George C. Marshall, and Robert A. Lovett, 1947 to 1953; Acting Director of the Office of Public Information, Department of Defense, under Secretary Charles E. Wilson, 1953; Director of the Office of Public Information, Department of Defense, for Secretaries Wilson and Neil H. McElroy, 1953 to 1958; Director of Information, Department of Interior, for Secretaries Fred A. Seaton and Stewart Udall, 1958 to 1961; and Press secretary to U.S. Senator John Tower of Texas, 1961 to 1963. From 1963 to 1973 he was the Washington manager of the Independent Bankers Association, and from 1973 to 1976 worked as a banking consultant. He published a biography of Congressman Clarence Cannon in 1977, and retired to California. He died in September 1985 in San Diego, California.
From the description of Schooley, C. Herschel (Clarence Herschel), 1900-1985 (U.S. National Archives and Records Administration). naId: 10576006
