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CLAYTON B. SEAGEARS
(1897 - 1983)

We first hear of Clayton Seagears at the University of Michigan. He studied zoology and journalism there as an undergraduate and remained in 1924 as an instructor in vertebrate zoology and economic conservation under Alexander G. Ruthven.

The next 13 years, from 1924 to 1937, were spent in newspaper work with the Orange Independent Corporation, a newspaper publishing corporation owned by the Harrimans of New York State. He handled sports, outdoor columns, and general illustrating, including the syndicated newspaper cartoon feature called The Inside on the Outdoors which reached its peak of use in 127 newspapers.

In 1937 he joined the New York State Conservation Department as a Game Research Investigator. Later he became Director of the Division of Conservation Education and in 1946 he founded The Conservationist magazine, the official publication of the New York State Conservation Department.

Mr. Seagears was self-taught as an artist. He did general commercial work as well as specializing later in outdoor subjects and wildlife. After the founding of The Conservationist, until his retirement from the N. Y. Conservation Department in 1962, much of his work was done for that. His favorite subjects were deer and waterfowl.

Mr. Seagears retired from the Conservation Department in 1962 and three years later moved from New York State, where he was born, to Bloomfield Hills, Michigan where he maintained his home and studio with his wife, the former Marian Parsons of Detroit.

Upon his retirement from active conservation work he went about the business of fulfilling a lifelong desire: that of painting certain exotic forms of wildlife through out the world. He made hundreds of sketches and many watercolors in Japan, Ceylon, Thailand, India, Europe, Surinam, the Greek Islands, and a dozen islands in the Caribbean He worked mostly in tempera and specialized in birds with emphasis on waterfowl and upland game.

Mr. Seagears' articles or illustrations have appeared in such books or magazines as The Hunters Encyclopedia, The Ruffled Grouse, Outdoors Unlimited, American Gun, Field and Stream, Colliers, and The Saturday Evening Post, as well as in The Conservationist, and others.