ROANOKE TELLS CLAYTOR GOODBYE ONE LAST TIME

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 14, 1993                   TAG: 9304140251
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: GEORGE KEGLEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
ROANOKE TELLS CLAYTOR GOODBYE ONE LAST TIME
Robert B. Claytor was remembered Tuesday by a church full of community leaders and railroaders who worked with him at the Norfolk and Western and later Norfolk Southern Corp.'s rail system.
Many a retired railroad employee left St. John's Episcopal Church after Claytor's funeral with fond memories of the lawyer who was often as comfortable in the engineer's seat as in his office.
Claytor, 71, died Friday at his Norfolk home after a long fight with cancer. In his 36 years of railroading, he worked from lawyer to executive vice president and to president of NW in 1981. The Roanoke native led the merger of NW with the Southern Railway and was the new company's chairman from 1982 until his retirement in 1987.
Claytor had five passions - his family, his church, his Lord, church music and the railroad - "but I would hate to prioritize them," said the Right Rev. Frank H. Vest, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Southern Virginia in Norfolk. Vest, who was on the staff at St. John's when Claytor lived in Roanoke, preached at Tuesday's service.
Most of his former associates know that railroading was an everyday passion for Claytor. He knew how to run trains and he knew when they were running right.
Vest said in his funeral homily, "The church triumphant has a marvelous new tenor." Claytor was a leading tenor in St. John's choir for many years.
Vest, explaining why Episcopalians have a homily instead of a eulogy at their funerals, said the service "is the same for the town drunk or a railroad president. For most of us, the preacher has blessed little" to eulogize.
The bishop called Claytor "one of the ablest human beings I've known."
Vest also was the preacher at a service for Claytor held Monday in Norfolk.
Claytor's older brother, Graham Claytor, chairman of Amtrak, attended the funeral with other family members.
Among the mourners were former Gov. Linwood Holton, former Norfolk Southern Chairman Arnold McKinnon, former NW Chairman John Fishwick and U.S. District Judge James C. Turk.
David Goode, Norfolk Southern's current chairman; John Shannon, an executive vice president of the corporation; and Richard Dunlap, the last president of NW, were among the pallbearers.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB