Returning from military service Kelley was assigned to the Kansas City office, where his performance earned him a promotion to field supervisor. He also served at FBI Headquarters in Washington, D.C. in 1951. From July 1953 to July 1957, he served as Assistant Special Agent in Charge at the Houston, Seattle, and San Francisco offices. He was then transferred to the Training and Inspection Division at FBI Headquarters, becoming an Inspector. In December 1957, he was promoted to Special Agent in Charge of the Birmingham office and was reassigned to the Memphis office in November 1960, where he served as Special Agent in Charge until his retirement from the FBI on October 24, 1961.
On June 7, 1973, President Richard Nixon nominated Kelley to be Director of the FBI. The United States Senate confirmed the nomination June 27 and he was sworn in on July 9. Kelley was the first Director of the FBI to be appointed through the nomination and confirmation process. During his time as Director, Kelley is known for eliminating the embezzlement practices that had been prevalent in the administrative division under J. Edgar Hoover's directorship through his cooperation with a Justice Department investigation. Kelley also reopened relations with other intelligence agencies, such as the Central Intelligence Agency which had nearly been shut down by Hoover in his last years as director. Kelley helped the FBI transition from its 40 plus years of being dominated by a single director, J. Edgar Hoover, by improving the public image of the FBI as an organization in change albeit without making the change forceful enough to FBI agents who had been loyal to Hoover. Kelley announced his intention to retire in 1977, prompting an exhaustive year-long search for a successor. President Jimmy Carter finally decided on William H. Webster, who was nominated in January 1978.
Later life
Kelley retired from the FBI February 15, 1978 and was temporarily succeeded by James B. Adams, who served as Acting Director until Webster's confirmation 8 days later. Kelley founded Clarence M. Kelley and Associates, Inc., a security and investigation firm, in 1982. CMKA is now one of the nation's leading Professional Investigative and Security Consulting Firms. CMKA http://www.cmka.com/ provides a broad spectrum of investigative and security related services nationally and abroad. Kelley died in 1997 in his sleep from natural causes in his Kansas City home. His remains were later buried at Mount Washington Cemetery in Independence, Missouri. He was buried next to his wife, who died in 1975 from cancer.
