Former Town Commissioner Randy Clair loved the water, Longboat and family

Randy Clair knew his way around the water.

“Sailing was really the thing he enjoyed the most in life,” said his wife, Jean Clair.

Vacations with the kids growing up were spent on Lake Michigan, each of his three daughters with different responsibilities to keep the boat’s sails positioned correctly.

“Every vacation we sailed. We didn’t go anywhere else but on the boat,” said his daughter Kathy Clair-Hayes.

He picked up boating early in life, learning to sail at the age of 14.

When he retired three decades ago, he chose a canal-bordering Country Club Shores house as his retirement home. He didn’t have Longboat Key marked on his map ahead of time, though. He and Jean took a trip to the Gulf Coast in search of a suitable nest, making stops from Tampa to Naples. A good meal may have sealed the deal.

“He bought the house because of Dry Dock,” said Clair’s daughter Margaret Noxon. Randy and Jean could be seen at the restaurant almost every Friday night, Randy usually opting for the salmon.

Clair, a former Longboat Key town commissioner, died Jan. 17. He was 86. 

Randy and Jean were married for 61 years, meeting at a hospital in Illinois where he was a patient and Jean was a nurse.

“I was in charge of the floor, and his sister was going to nursing school at the same time. She asked me, 'Are you going with anybody?' and then he called me,” Jean said.

Clair ran for Town Commission for the first time in 2005. Policy-wise, he’s likely best remembered for his insistence on reforming an unbalanced pension system as the town faced $20 million in unfunded pension liabilities. A Longboat Observer article from 2020 said that his efforts “helped keep the town from financial ruin.”

A push that was not so popular with those set to receive the pensions, he tallied his re-election defeat in 2009 to the initiative.

Years later, when a commissioner’s move out of town left a vacant seat on the dais, Clair was the only one to apply to fill the volunteer position. He served on the commission on an interim basis from 2017 to 2018 and then was elected to represent District 1 from 2018 to 2020 in an unopposed election.

“He was always ready to help someone,” Jean said. “That’s why he went for commissioner. He wanted to help Longboat Key.”

Susan Phillips, former assistant town manager for 27 years, worked with Clair during both of his terms as commissioner. She described him as an extremely brilliant, community-minded Longboater who wasn’t the type of commissioner to chime in on every topic, but he would add valuable perspectives when he was knowledgeable on a subject.

His community involvement wasn’t only as a commissioner. He was a member of St. Mary, Star of the Sea Catholic Church and served on the church’s finance committee. He volunteered with the Country Club Shores homeowners association and served on Longboat’s Revitalization Task Force. He was also part of Congressman Vern Buchanan’s advisory panel on cadet appointments to the U.S. service academies.

Randy and Jean also turned out for various community events.

“They supported anything going on with the chamber or the garden club,” Phillips said.

Clair picked up golfing when he moved to Longboat Key, and hit the green once a week. He hit a hole-in-one during one Sarasota outing.

“They couldn’t find the ball,” Jean said. “They didn’t see it go in the hole.”

Professionally, Clair was an attorney who represented the oil company Amoco for almost three decades. His cases centered around maritime law and issues, merging his passion for boating and his career. Perhaps the most consequential cases in his career came from representing Amoco after a 1978 oil spill, spending more than a decade on lawsuits and counter lawsuits stemming from the 216,000-ton spill.

His work took him across the globe, traveling to Europe, South America, Asia and the Middle East. He always returned with dolls for each of his three daughters.

Clair was the kind of guy to help his neighbors, showing he cared by his actions more often than his words. After a neighbor lost his eyesight, Randy stepped up to help how he could, stopping by once a week to read his mail to him. 

“He was that kind of guy,” Clair-Hayes said. And Clair-Noxon said her dad was handy, fixing things around the house any opportunity he had.

Always there to help family and friends, Randy was a problem-solver.

“I had to take communications law in college. I think I came home every other weekend for him to translate,” Clair-Noxon said. “He walked me through how to take a garbage disposal apart over the phone. We could just about call him for anything.”

Clair’s funeral Mass will be held at 1 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 31 at St. Mary, Star of the Sea, 4280 Gulf of Mexico Drive.