Clarence Day died on Oct. 24 in Memphis, Tenn., from injuries suffered in an automobile accident. He was 82.

Born on July 27, 1927, to Clarence and Christine Day in Aberdeen, Miss., he received his secondary education at Aberdeen High School, attended Southwestern at Memphis (now Rhodes College), and earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Mississippi. He held honorary degrees from Centre College, Furman University, Rhodes College and the University of the South at Sewanee.

In his early career, Mr. Day expanded his family land holdings in Mississippi into a collection of companies that dealt with timber, plywood and oil and gas explorations in the continental U.S. and the Gulf of Mexico. He acquired, operated and held an interest in a dozen other companies, including Patterson Transfer Company, Inc., one of the mid-South’s oldest trucking firms. His enterprises also included a cattle ranch in Missouri and residential and commercial development projects, including college dormitories and hotels and motels throughout the South. In 1960 he founded the Day Foundation. Under his leadership and driving passion to assist those in need, the foundation has awarded significant grants to initiate unique social service, leadership, arts and youth programs in Memphis and the mid-South. In recent years, Mr. Day focused his attention and support on Youth Villages, a Memphis-based organization that has become a leading private provider for children with serious emotional and behavioral problems and their families. With Mr. Day’s vision and support, Youth Villages pioneered a widely praised transitional living program that helps children in foster care become productive, independent adult citizens.

For many years, he spent Christmas morning sharing gifts with the children in the Youth Villages residential treatment programs. He has also supported a number of other organizations, including the Mayo Clinic Foundation, St. Mary’s School, the Memphis Symphony Orchestra and the Early Childhood Institute at Mississippi State University. He often named foundation programs for individuals he admired, such as the Lucius Burch Scholarship at Rhodes College, the Hal P. Bailey Scholarship for Boy Scout leaders at the University of Memphis, the Bishop William Dimmick Lake at Sewanee and the Mori Greiner Arts in the Schools program with the Memphis Arts Council.

In 1979 the Day Foundation won a national Business in the Arts citation from Forbes Magazine for providing start-up funds to create art programs for children, prisoners and senior citizens. These programs initiated by him, and now funded by others, continue to enrich the Memphis art scene.

In 1986, Mr. Day restored an antebellum mansion, the Magnolias, in memory of his parents and donated it to the city of Aberdeen, Miss. During the 1990s his foundation funded an innovative program to encourage middle income students to attend selective liberal arts colleges: Centre in Kentucky, Furman in South Carolina and Rhodes and Sewanee in Tennessee.

A discerning and eclectic collector of art, in 1989 Mr. Day gave the Brooks Museum of Art 60 pieces of Greek, Roman, Iranian, Egyptian, Etruscan and Byzantine civilization antiquities. Throughout his life, he was an avid tennis player and swimmer. He was a skier, a pilot, a scuba diver and enjoyed sailing. He traveled extensively throughout the world pursuing his interest in art and other cultures. He served as president of the Boys Club of Memphis and the Memphis Academy of Arts and on the vestry of Calvary Episcopal Church in Memphis. He served as a board member of the Memphis Symphony, the Dixon Gallery and Gardens and the Episcopal Barth House at the University of Memphis; he was an advisor to the Metropolitan Opera, the Fogg Museum at Harvard and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. He was a member of the Memphis Country Club, the Edgartown Yacht Club and the Royal Automobile Club in London.

He is survived by his daughter Dianna Holland of Memphis, his granddaughter Natasha Christina Heflin Davis of New York city and his stepson Eli Haizlip of San Francisco.

Interment was on Oct. 29 at the Odd Fellows Cemetery in Aberdeen, Miss. A memorial service was held on Oct. 31 at Calvary Episcopal Church followed by a reception at the Junior League of Memphis House on Central Avenue.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests memorials be sent to Youth Villages, 3320 Brother Blvd., Memphis, TN 38133.