In the Oakland hills’ Montclair district, your next-door neighbor could be a father, golfer, memoirist or an elderly gentleman who grew up until he was age 14 in a home without electricity or…
In the Oakland hills’ Montclair district, your next-door neighbor could be a father, golfer, memoirist or an elderly gentleman who grew up until he was age 14 in a home without electricity or running water.
After attending Missouri’s then-segregated public schools, Clay entered Saint Louis University as one of just a handful of Black students and graduated in 1951 with a math degree. Eventually meeting Virginia Conners, who became his wife of 38 years, the couple drove west in 1962 to arrive and make their home in Palo Alto.
“He just a few months ago moved to a skilled nursing facility,” said his son, Chris Clay, providing an update on his father. “Otherwise, he’d be on the phone speaking to you directly. We worked on that memoir for two years, and he was on board, on Zoom during the pandemic days, the whole time.” The younger Clay said the story of perseverance and dedication stuck with him because when applying to electrical engineering programs he was “obsessed” with UC Berkeley.
Clay Sr.’s memoir says being asked to show his driver’s license and vehicle registration was tragic but not surprising due to “driving while Black.” Chris Clay said the hardest story to accept happened immediately after his father was granted membership in the San Francisco Olympic Club.
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