Dear was the youngest of eleven children born to
Mississippi natives James Mackburn Dear (1846–1925) and the former Sarah Jane Harper (1849–1932) in
Sugartown in
Beauregard Parish in western Louisiana. After early education in country schools, Dear graduated from
Louisiana State University and its
Paul M. Hebert Law Center, both in
Baton Rouge. He was a member of
Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity. In 1914, he received his law degree and was admitted that same year to the bar. At first, he was in partnership in Alexandria in
Rapides Parish in Central Louisiana, with Frank H. Peterman in the firm Peterman & Dear. When V. H. Peterman, the father of Frank Peterman joined the firm, it became Peterman, Dear & Peterman. The firm handled local interests of the
Texas & Pacific Railway and the Louisiana Railway and Navigation Company. On April 8, 1917, two days after the American entrance into
World War I, Dear entered the
United States Army officers' training camp at
Fort Logan H. Roots in
Arkansas, from which he received his commission as a
second lieutenant of
Field Artillery. He was then assigned to the
87th Division, which was undergoing organization and training at
Camp Pike, Arkansas. When the 87 Division departed for France, several experienced soldiers including Dear were assigned form the nucleus of a new unit, the
11th Division, which was being organized at
Fort Meade,
Maryland. The war ended before the 11th Division could be transported to France, and Dear was discharged on December 14, 1918. He later served as a
captain in the
Organized Reserve Corps and was active in the newly established
American Legion and other veterans' organizations. and a son, Cleveland "Cleve" Dear Jr. (1928–2015), a
petroleum engineering graduate of both the
Colorado School of Mines in
Golden,
Colorado, and LSU, who spent his later years with his wife and three children in
Junction in
Kimble County,
Texas, where he died at the age of eighty-seven. Dear was a
Baptist deacon; his wife was
Episcopalian. He was active in the
Masonic lodge, the
Shriners, and the
Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. ==Political life==