Man’s donation will continue to help educate students

Lynchburg College and the greater local community today will celebrate the life of a man remembered for his peaceful nature and efforts to preserve a natural sanctuary for education.

A. Boyd Claytor III, who donated his Bedford County land to LC for the Claytor Nature Study Center and was a member of the college’s board of trustees, died Saturday at age 83.

“He was just such a happy, easy-going person,” said his wife Sakina Claytor. She described her husband as a man who preferred “to keep his life very simple.”

A native of Lynchburg, Boyd Claytor and his late first wife, Virginia, bought the Cloverlea farm about 60 years ago.

“He lived there for almost 50 years,” said Sakina Claytor, and he loved the land.

As a young man, he would climb the Peaks of Otter; and until recently he kept a walking stick in his Cloverlea farmhouse so he could walk the property.

In 1997, he put the land under conservation easement to protect it from development. A year later, he donated it to the college.

“Boyd had a vision to preserve that land and use it for environmental purposes,” said LC President Kenneth Garren.

The land now is used for educational programs for local K-12 students, as well as students in the sciences at LC.

The property retains its natural appeal that Claytor loved; With a commanding view of the Peaks of Otter in the Blue Ridge Mountains, the 470 acres includes a stretch of the Big Otter River, two small lakes, a pond, open fields, woodlands, riverside cliffs, wetlands and more than 2 miles of trails.

It also is home to the 7,700-square-foot A. Boyd Claytor III Education and Research Facility and the Belk Astronomical Observatory.

“Boyd wanted to leave the farm to a college who is going to take care of it, who is basically going to nurture it, treasure it, and make good use of it,” said Sakina Claytor.

But he didn’t leave everything up to the college; Boyd Claytor retained an active role in managing the property, said Greg Eaton, director of the Claytor Nature Study Center.

“We would see him nearly every day,” Eaton said. The donation agreement allowed Claytor to keep possession of the farmhouse. And almost every weekday, he would spend several hours there.

He also would frequently chat with visitors to the property.

“He really enjoyed seeing folks just drop by,” Eaton said. “It’s not really public property, but it’s well known enough that people from the community would just drop by to see the gardens, walk their dogs, to fish. … Boyd loved it.”

“He really enjoyed that, and wanted it to be a more publicly accessible place.”

Eaton described Claytor as “a private man, but very well known.”

Prior to his retirement, Claytor owned and operated Southern Flavoring Company, Holiday Company, and their subsidiary corporations. He was a founding director of Liberty Bank of Bedford and Giftco Inc. of Chicago.

Garren said Claytor “was a very strong businessman, but when it came to the environment, he was just as strong.”

“He was just a wonderful guy.”

A celebration of Boyd Claytor’s life will be conducted at 7 p.m. today at the Claytor Nature Study Center, at 1650 Cloverlea Lane, Bedford.

For directions, call the Tharp Funeral Home and Crematory of Bedford, at (540) 586-3443. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the Claytor Nature Study Center of Lynchburg College, 1501 Lakeside Drive, Lynchburg, VA 24501.