A. Boyd Claytor III, who donated his land to Lynchburg College for the Claytor Nature Study Center and was a member of the LC Board of Trustees, died Saturday at age 83.
"We are saddened by the death of this very special friend of the College," President Kenneth R. Garren said. "We will be eternally grateful to Boyd for his gift of the Claytor Nature Study Center. Some years ago, he stated his vision for the Center as follows: ‘To be recognized as the premier facility in Central Virginia for the study and appreciation of our natural environment, and to be well utilized as such by the College and community.' It is the goal of Lynchburg College to bring his vision full-blown into a reality for the everlasting benefit of all in Central Virginia."
The 470-acre Claytor Nature Study Center was made possible by a generous gift of property and an endowment from Boyd Claytor and his late wife Virginia in 1998. Since that time, the College has constructed the 7,700-square-foot A. Boyd Claytor III Education and Research Facility and the Belk Astronomical Observatory at the Claytor Nature Study Center.
Both facilities have enhanced the college's educational and outreach programs, offering LC students and regional K-12 students and teachers an ideal resource for conducting hands-on, laboratory-based environmental research and astronomical observations.
The property, known as Cloverlea, was a farm from the late 1700s until 1997, when Boyd Claytor put the property under conservation easement to protect it from development. A year later, he donated it to the College. It is managed for environmental conservation and restoration through agreements with the Virginia Outdoors Foundation and the USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service.
The Claytor Nature Study Center offers a commanding view of the Peaks of Otter in the Blue Ridge Mountains. The Big Otter River runs over a mile through the property and two small lakes and a pond dot the landscape. The Center offers open fields, woodlands, riverside cliffs, wetlands, a wide variety of flora and fauna, and over two miles of trails.
Prior to his retirement, Boyd Claytor was the owner and operator of Southern Flavoring Company, Holiday Company, and their subsidiary corporations. He was a founding director of Liberty Bank of Bedford and Giftco Inc. of Chicago.
A native of Lynchburg, he held a B.S. in commerce from the University of Virginia. He and his wife, Sakina, owner of Sakina's Inc., made their home in Lynchburg.
A celebration of Boyd Claytor's life will be conducted at 7 p.m. Friday, May 29, 2009, at the Claytor Nature Study Center, 1650 Cloverlea Lane, Bedford. You may obtain directions from Tharp Funeral Home and Crematory, 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.