Clement Conger, 91, the State Department curator who transformed the “motel modern” look of its diplomatic reception rooms into a showcase for early American craftsmanship, died Sunday at a hospital in Delray Beach, Fla. He had pneumonia.
Mr. Conger’s career, which married diplomacy, politics and fine arts, was chronicled extensively in print. Seemingly every Chippendale table, every Gilbert Stuart portrait, every Duncan Phyfe cabinet he obtained became cause for a story.
He raised millions of dollars to refurnish State Department rooms for visiting dignitaries and then did the same at the White House and Blair House, the presidential guesthouse.
His entry into curating, in the early 1960s, was largely accidental. He was at the State Department helping coordinate visits by foreign officials when the wife of Secretary of State Christian Herter approached him worriedly about additions that had been made to the State Department building. She was distressed to see the new hospitality suite looking so sterile.
He fixed the problem with three borrowed French paintings and then got to work forming a committee of wealthy citizens with a healthy interest in history and antiques. He sent letters nationwide explaining the benefits of lending beautiful objects to the State Department: “national pride, family pride and tax deductibility.”
Over the years, he overhauled more than 15 main reception rooms and offices. The furnishings are now valued at more than $100 million, said Pat Heflin, his former assistant.
The Nixons admired his work and invited him to be the White House curator. In 1986, First Lady Nancy Reagan reportedly dismissed him because of artistic differences. He retired from the State Department in 1992.
Early on, Mr. Conger worked in Washington as an office manager and correspondent for the Chicago Tribune.
He joined the State Department and became deputy chief of protocol in the late 1950s. He helped oversee visits by many foreign officials.
The job had its foibles.
“Marshall Field V’s wife didn’t like antiques,” he said in 1972, referring to the Chicago newspaper publisher. “But he couldn’t stop collecting them, so he lent them to us. But . . . he changed wives, and his new wife just loves antiques. So the other week, all the antiques he had lent us went to their home.”
