Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, December 1, 1993 TAG: 9312010069
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Thomas M. Downs, New Jersey's transportation commissioner, will replace Claytor, Amtrak's board of directors announced Tuesday. Claytor, 81, has led the taxpayer-subsidized railway since July 1982.
"Don't you think it's about time? I've been here 11 1/2 years," Claytor said Tuesday when asked about his retirement.
Claytor said he plans to maintain his home in Washington, D.C., after his retirement but will continue to visit his second home on Claytor Lake in Pulaski County. The lake is named for his late father, William Graham Claytor Sr., an executive with Appalachian Power Co. and its parent, American Electric Power Co.
A specialist in railroad law with a Washington law firm, Claytor joined the Southern Railroad as its general counsel in 1963. Four years later he became Southern's president and chief executive officer, rising to chairman of the board in 1976.
President Carter appointed Claytor, who commanded Navy vessels in World War II, as secretary of the navy in February 1977. He was appointed assistant secretary of defense in August 1979.
With the election of Ronald Reagan, Claytor returned to private law practice in February 1981. He was called back to government service a little over a year later to run Amtrak.
Claytor's younger brother, Robert Claytor, was an executive with the Norfolk and Western Railway and became chairman of Norfolk Southern Corp. when the NW and the Southern merged in 1982.
Graham Claytor graduated from the University of Virginia with emphasis in mathematics and physics in 1933 and was a summa cum laude graduate of the Harvard University Law School in 1936. He served as a law clerk for two highly respected federal jurists: Judge Learned Hand of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit and Associate Justice Louis Brandeis of the Supreme Court.
"I've enjoyed all the jobs, I've had," Claytor said of his career.
"We treated it as a private, for-profit company," Claytor said in summing up his goals at Amtrak. He has no feeling of leaving any of his goals for Amtrak unfinished.
Under Claytor, Amtrak - a semi-public corporation - reduced its dependence on government subsidies to pay its operating costs from 58 percent to 21 percent.
Claytor said that once the economy improves, Amtrak should do even better in its goal to become self-supporting.
Members of Congress have praised Claytor for turning Amtrak into an efficiently run business. And he was known as a tough negotiator with the railroads that run Amtrak passenger trains.
However, Amtrak has faced a budget squeeze that has led to service and maintenance cutbacks, labor problems and scarce money for new equipment.
Downs, 50, was not mentioned when speculation began a year ago about Claytor's possible successor. Claytor had indicated, according to The Washington Post, that he favored William S. Norman, Amtrak's executive vice president, as his successor.
Since March 1990, Downs has been New Jersey's transportation chief and chairman of the New Jersey Transit Corp.
He previously was president of the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority in New York City, city administrator in Washington, director of the District of Columbia Transportation Department and executive director of the Urban Mass Transportation Administration.
The Associated Press contributed information to this story.
by CNB