The "The Passing of an Icon" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Reading about the death of the brother of a long-ago friend in yesterday's paper.  While I was a student at Millersville State Teachers College in the early 1960s I met Roy Clair while taking a class in wood.  My major was Industrial Arts and I had plans to teach after graduation.  When I first visited the campus I met with an adviser in administration.  He asked what I planned to major in and I told him I always wanted to be a math teacher.  After looking over some paperwork which I assume were my SAT scores, he told me that the only openings they had were in Industrial Arts.  He asked if I would be interested in Industrial Arts and I assured him I would love to teach that, whatever it was.  So today in wood class I was working on a design for a project we had to construct in the class and Roy walked past me and noticed I was designing a stereo unit.  He too was working on a stereo and wanted to know if I wanted to work together and he would help me get the speakers, turntable, tuner and amplifier.  You bet I would love to work with him.  We became good friends during that semester and it was at this time that I found out that he and his brother Gene were starting an audio business.  Not only were the two of them audio entrepreneurs, they were very successful audio entrepreneurs.  Clair Brothers Audio was the name of their business.  

Gene Clair

Gene was a few years older than Roy and when Gene graduated from Penn State York Campus he became an electrician.  A few years later, while working in the Foreign Language lab at Franklin and Marshall College, he was asked to set up the sound system for a visiting musical group, The Four Seasons.  Gene and Roy did the sound system and the group was so impressed that they took Gene and Roy on tour with them.  I'm not sure if Roy ever graduated from school, but what the heck.  He didn't have too!!  Clair Brothers began doing the sound systems for bands such as Elton John, The Moody Blues and Michael Jackson, to name a few.  They traveled the world while I taught Industrial Arts in Lancaster County.  Yeah, what luck!!  Well, today's paper reported that Walter Eugene "Gene" Clair died December 3rd.  He was born in and was a life-long resident of Lititz, PA. Also in today's paper was a photo of Elton John at the bottom of one of the pages and I started reading.  Said that legendary singer Elton John, at a concert in New York, dedicated his classic hit, "Your Song," to Gene Clair.  Wow!  As he sat at his piano he said he wanted to dedicate the song to someone --- when I started out years and years ago, the first sound company I ever had was Clair Brothers, and they're still my sound company after 44 years.  "In honor of that company, Gene Clair passed away today … … Gene, you were a genius.  Thank you for everything.  Travel safely."  The moment was posted on YouTube at http://bit.ly/1hGN38A.  Check it out.  Roy, my condolences to you and your family for the loss of a great brother and friend.  And, thanks for your help in wood shop years ago.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.