Richard William Clayton's Obituary
Richard "Dick" Clayton -
engineer, boatsman, artist
BOZMAN, TALBOT COUNTY- Dick Clayton often finished his day sitting on his back deck, sipping a glass of red wine, while admiring the graceful lines of the deadrises across the quiet waters at PT Hambleton's crabbing and oystering operation. He never tired of his home on Grace Creek, counting that and his family and friends as his greatest blessings. "I think I just saw an angel fly by," he would often say since he considered this a slice of heaven on earth. In retirement, he mastered the art of glass cutting, creating several Tiffany style-stained glass lamps, built and competed with model sailboats, raised and raced homing pigeons, tended to his beehives and shared honey with neighbors.
When he died on Thursday, September 19th at 89 after a mercifully swift illness, Dick had left little undone. Careful planning and hard work as a mechanical design engineer with RCA enabled the New Jersey native to fully enjoy more than thirty years of retirement in his adopted home on Maryland's Eastern Shore. His boyhood and early years spent fishing, crabbing, hunting and sailing on the waters of New Jersey's Silver Bay, nurtured his passion for boating and made his eventual transition to Eastern Shore life seamless.
His evolution from engineer to artist was equally as smooth. With steady discipline, typical of engineers, Dick perfected his remarkable carving and painting skills, bringing to life three-dimensional waterfowl and wildlife scenes of unimaginable detail. Recently he was putting finishing touches on his latest Chesapeake workboat model, a Hooper Island Draketail . He delighted in giving his birds and models as gifts to his friends and memorializing graduations, marriages and births for his children, grandchildren and most recently, his great grandchildren.
Throughout it all, Dick maintained a quick wit and humor as well as an intensely contagious laughter that endeared him to all.
He was christened Richard William Clayton when he was born in Lakewood, New Jersey on April 14, 1935. He became a lifelong, passionate fan of the South Carolina Gamecocks after receiving an engineering degree there. His successful career at RCA included work on the groundbreaking development of the communication satellites that have now become a commonplace feature of the space above us.
Having married his childhood sweetheart Ann Buchanan in 1960, they enjoyed 64 years of marriage. Mr. Clayton is survived by his wife Ann Clayton, their daughter Diane Spits and her husband Andre; son, Jeffrey Clayton and his wife Rebecca. He is also survived by grandchildren Nicholas Spits and his wife Chelsea; Katherine Goldberg and her husband Geoffrey; and Jessica Clayton, as well as great-grandchildren Colin and Joshua Spits.
For those inclined to make some gesture in Dick's honor, the family suggests donations to the Chesapeake Maritime Museum in St. Michaels where Dick spent much of his time with the Model Sailing Club.
A memorial service for a life well lived is currently in the planning stages and will be announced in the weeks ahead.
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