Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, May 15, 1994 TAG: 9405150070
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By TODD JACKSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
After graduating with honors from Harvard Law School in 1936, he worked as a law clerk for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis.
He then went on to become a successful attorney in one of the largest law firms in Washington, D.C.
In 1977, President Jimmy Carter appointed him as Secretary of the Navy.
But Claytor's first love was the railroad. His love for the rails was so great that he gave up his lucrative Washington law practice to take over the Southern Railway in 1967 at a time when railroads were faltering.
He brought the railroad company back to prominence using both passenger and freight service. Once, Claytor and group of railroad enthusiasts took an old Southern locomotive out of a museum, hooked it up to passenger cars, and ran the train from Chattanooga to Richmond.
Southern operated one of the last private passenger services, the Southern Crescent, that ran from New York to New Orleans.
"He just loved the rails," said John P. Fishwick, retired chairman of Norfolk and Western Railway. "He just couldn't keep away from it. He'd take trains to the West Coast when he could."
Fishwick, who made a few train trips with Claytor through the years, said that when steam locomotives were being replaced by diesel models Clayter would spend time devising ways to travel places on steam engines.
"He even had one of the best collections of model trains," Fishwick said.
Claytor - born on Rosalind Avenue in South Roanoke - came from a family of rail enthusiasts. His brother, Robert, who died last year, served as chairman of the Norfolk Southern Corp., the railroad produced as a result of a merger between Norfolk and Western and Southern. His father, W. Graham Claytor Sr., was general manager of the old Roanoke Railway and Electric Co.
In 1938, Claytor joined the Washington law firm of Covington & Burling. He took leave to serve in the Navy during World War II, and commanded destroyers in the Pacific. As commander of the USS Cecil J. Doyle, Claytor was instrumental in the rescue of almost 100 American sailors from the cruiser Indianapolis after it was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine.
Claytor returned to the law firm after the war and was named a partner in 1947.
He joined Southern as vice president of law in 1963, and rose to president in 1967 and chairman in 1976.
After retiring from the railroad and serving as secretary of the Navy and deputy secretary of defense, he accepted the task of leading Amtrak.
According to a release from the company, Claytor is "acknowledged as the man who saved Amtrak from [federal] administration attempts to withhold all federal funding."
Another part of Claytor's impact on the company is the restored Union Station in Washington, D.C. Amtrak honored him by renaming the station's passenger thoroughfare "Claytor Concourse."
Claytor was always known as a railroad man. In a 1967 Forbes Magazine article, he was described as a "dyed-in-the-wool railroad buff."
Claytor is survived by his wife, Frances Murray Claytor of Washington, D.C., and Holmes Beach, Fla.; a son, W. Graham Claytor III of Alameda, Calif.; a daughter, Dr. Murray Claytor of Atlanta; a brother, Richard A. Claytor of Bethesda, Md.; and two grandchildren.
Funeral arrangements were incomplete, but Claytor will be buried in Roanoke. A memorial service is planned in Washington.
by CNB