Partner David Watmough
Queer Places:
Stanford University, Old Union 232, Stanford, CA 94305
3358 West First Avenue, Vancouver, British Columbia V6R 1G4, Canada
Floyd
Bradley St. Clair (November 9, 1930 – January 4, 2009)
was an avid fan of opera with a talent for languages, notably
Spanish and French. A specialist in 19th century French literature, he taught in the Department of French, Hispanic, and Italian Studies at UBC starting in 1963 and retired in 1996. In 1971 he won a Master Teacher Award from UBC.
Floyd Bradley St. Clair was born November 9, 1930 in Pasadena, California, one of two boys, to Floyd and Vivian St. Clair. His father was a doctor and amateur musician, his mother a nurse. They always encouraged their offspring to give their all to whatever interested them. Floyd often recounted how everyone in his home had to be quiet on Saturdays so he could enjoy radio broadcasts from the Metropolitan Opera without distraction. When he was old enough to go out alone, he would take the streetcar to Los Angeles for opera and symphony performances. In addition to his love of opera, Floyd showed an early flair for languages, especially Spanish and French. Drafted into the US Army, he was posted in France as an interpreter and then did a stint at the Sciences PO in Paris in the early 1950s. He completed his PhD in French literature at Stanford University; taught for a time at Rutgers, and moved to Vancouver, British Columbia in 1959. As a student in Paris in the fall of 1951, he met and fell in love with his partner of more than 57 years, David Watmough, with whom he settled in Vancouver in 1963.
He was a teacher of French language and literature at Rutgers and UBC, where he won two master teaching awards and made lifelong friends of legions of students. He was a regular contributor to Opera (UK), Opera News (USA) and Opera in Canada; frequent opera broadcaster on CBC. He was an enthusiastic supporter of the arts, above all Vancouver opera, and of promising young Canadian singers. He was a pioneer of gay liberation in BC. He was a devout (and prodigiously knowledgeable) francophile and anglophile, staunch technophobe. He was an accomplished cook and dazzling _ if sometimes difficult to follow! _ conversationalist.
Floyd St. Clair and David Watmough in Paris.
David Watmough (right) and partner Floyd St. Clair, 1997. Photo by Barry Peterson & Blaise Enright.
Floyd and David at home
With his partner, David, he hosted innumerable lunches and dinners at their Kitsilano cottage, where a great many friendships were made or nurtured. He was a prolific correspondent, whose (occasionally indecipherable) missives inevitably included diverse clippings of interest to the addressee.
St. Clair died January 4, 2009, in Delta, British Columbia, of complications from heart disease.
My published books:>
