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Interviewer: Walter Elijah Campbell Tape Mo. 5.22.95BC Interviewee: Bruce Barclay Cameron Jr. Mono No. of sides: 2 No. of tapes: 1 Location: Bruce Cameron's office: The Cameron Company, 1201 Glen Meade Rd. Wilmington, NC 28401 TAPE INDEX Counter.-Ho.,. Topic 002 Opening announcement 024 Family, New Hanover High School 030 VMI, Lexington, VA; back to Wilmington; works for MacMillan & Company, Terminal Company 047 Details of Cape Fear Terminal Company 065 NC Oil Jobbers Association and importation of oil products from Rumania; prospective investors back out because of scarcity of money in the early 1930s; Cameron's father goes it alone in forming terminal company 104 First oil shipment comes in from Norfolk, Virginia; family meets the barge carrying the shipment and rides tanker through Snow's Cut to Wilmington 125 Pure Oil helps expand oil terminal by buying 60% interest in company; terminal facility eventually capable of storing 20 million gallons; located at the foot of wnght Street; tanks still there 145 Leaving father's business for World War II; stationed at Camp Davis (outside Wilmington), Feb-Dec 1941, constructing training facility there; leaves camp with General James B. Crawford and goes to Fort Bliss, El Paso, Texas, as Crawford's junior aide for about six months; sent back Camp Davis for artillery training, then back to Fort Bliss, and then enters a cadre at Camp Yulen Texas; sent to Desert Training Center for invasion of North Africa, but then sent to New Guinea 223 Father dies in July, 1944, while BBC Jr. is in New Guinea; released from Army without knowledge or consent in order to return to Wilmington to oversee barge traffic along coast [Interruption]

Interview number I-0006 in the Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) at The Southern Historical Collection, The Louis Round Wilson Special Collections Library, UNC-Chapel Hill. Bruce Barclay Cameron Jr., Tape No. 5.22.95BC, page 2 of 4 255 Why BBC Jr. went to VMI: Father sent him; VMI was a "damned good place to be from, but a hell of a place to be at"; [interruption]; loyal VMI alumni 275 Allowing female cadets at VMI will not work; the entry of women has been a fiasco at other all-male military schools 285 Working with father before VMI; MacMillan & Company's service station was one of the most modern in US; description of MacMillan and Company; Atlantic Navigation Company, before war, moved gasoline from Cape Fear Terminal up to Fayetteville, by 3 barges; father was president of Atlantic Navigation Company; the company's barges used during the war 320 Oil business is still going today under BBC Jr.'s youngest brother, Robert; R. F. Cameron Oil Company; Cape Fear Terminal and Atlantic Navigation sold years ago; family operated MacMillan & Co. until 12 years ago; wholesale automotive parts stores: New Bern, Myrtle Beach, Lumberton, Jacksonville, North Carolina 335 Association with Brody family of Kinston, North Carolina; Cameron family's connection with first radio station in Wilmington; family owned 40% of stock in station; reasons for investing; applying for first TV station—WECT; 366 Disagreements with majority stockholder, Dunlea, in TV-radio stations; buy-sell option tendered; Camerons buy out owner, Dunlea; Sam Brody had applied at same time for FCC TV license as Dunlea, who promised to make Broday a partner in the TV station if Brody withdrew his FCC application, which Brody did; but after Dunlea obtained the franchise, he would not fulfill his verbal agreement with Brody; about this time Camerons make Dunlea the buy-sell offer; Camerons and Brody stay together until sale of station several years ago; Dan Cameron was actively involved in managment of station 401 J. W. Jackson, on board of TV station, owned about 8% of the station's stock, was Budweiser and Pepsi Cola distributor in Wilmington; Jackson offers to sell Pepsi business to Camerons; Camerons buy it and begin investing in bottling companies in North and South Carolina and Tennessee; the TV station (Atlantic Telecasting Corporation) actually owned the bottling companies; BBC Jr. regrets having sold local Pepsi company; Brody was in on Pepsi deal too, owning same share as he owned in the TV company; bottling companies eventually sold to Liggett & Myers

Interview number I-0006 in the Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) at The Southern Historical Collection, The Louis Round Wilson Special Collections Library, UNC-Chapel Hill. Bruce Barclay Cameron Jr., Tape No. 5.22.95BC, page 3 of 4 451 Oil business and World War II; Frank Kenan and London family; BBC Jr. on Frank Kenan; BBC Jr.'s father was involved with large oil transportation company, Petroleum Transit, before the war; this company had about 100 trucks before the war; BBC Sr. was not the major stockholder of Petroleum Transit, which was based in Jacksonville, Florida; Petroleum Transit was run by Ann Graff of Jacksonville; BBC Sr. got legislature to pass a bill before WW II for oil pipeline from Wilmington to interior of state but war probably stopped plans for construction 505 Land in Clendenin, West Virginia 520 Plans for working with father; BBC Jr. enjoys buying land; first track bought in 1950, Hyde County, for hunting and timber; accumulation of land, buying and selling 535 1955-56, , buying island (1955) and decision to develop (1967); building private drawbridge and causeway to island; finding out about island originally: Camerons bought most of the land from the Foy family; island beaten up by 575 Current land holdings: on Shipyard Blvd; developments at Bay Shore, across from Figure Eight; 40- 50,000 acres total throughout six different states; more land in Tennessee than in NC: Chill Howie Mtn., in Great Smokies, 6,000 acres, 8500 in Mountain City; 2200 acres near Aiken, SC; 3000 near Roanoke, VA 600 Family's business interests branch out in the 1950s SIDE B 003 Philanthropic activities; New Hanover Memorial County Hospital [interuption]; donations to UNC- Wilmington and to VMI; St. John's Museum; folk art 058 Hunting since five years old; only family member who likes to hunt; hunting stimulates interest in accumulating land; duck hunting place at Pamlico Sound 083 Large contributor to Ducks Unlimited; not entirely in agreement with the group now; disappointing experiences with the EPA and its interpretation of "wetlands"; EPA similar to the "jack-booted policemen" NRA refers to in its recent (1995) brochure.

Interview number I-0006 in the Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) at The Southern Historical Collection, The Louis Round Wilson Special Collections Library, UNC-Chapel Hill. Bruce Barclay Cameron Jr., Tape No. 5.22.95BC, page 4 of 4 144 Political affiliation: Republican Party; change from Democratic family connection; welcomes recent Republican victories on national and state level 165 BBC Jr. and family contributions to Wilmington: father and brother are two best politicians city ever had--both Democrats; brother, Dan, serves the city well when ACL Railroad announces it is moving its headquarters to Jacksonville, Florida, in the mid-1950s. 215 Father's importance to Wilmington's shipbuilding industry during the war; father is the most outstanding Cameron man in history; brother, Dan is second; BBC Jr. has given away about $20 million, including what is in the B. B. Cameron Foundation (about $7 million); mystery why more people don't take advantage of giving--Wilmington is hard town to raise money in 245 Wilmington's future: in next twenty years city will double in population in New Hanover County; tremendous influx of people will continue; rich and poor are coming in; BBC Jr.'s views of the movie industry's impact on Wilmington: good industry, here to stay, will get bigger 267 BBC Jr. considers his proudest accomplishment to be the "stuff" he has given away; he and his brother, Dan, have done more for VMI than for anything else, probably because it helped them do much of what they have done; values learned at VMI; on the rifle and pistol team at VMI; graduated at age 20, not old enough for commission, would have been better off if had graduated two years later; making the honor role to get a car during last year at VMI 335 Value of engineering degree to career: good background; the VMI experience as a cadet: something going all the time, no free time; BBC Jr. walks a couple of miles a day, other exercise in the. woods; no drinking now.

Interview number I-0006 in the Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) at The Southern Historical Collection, The Louis Round Wilson Special Collections Library, UNC-Chapel Hill.