Clay James was Mr. Hospitality

My first chance to watch the late Clay James in action was when he was helping to preserve world peace from Jackson Hole, Wyoming, in 1989.

James, the long-time general manager of the state’s second biggest lodging complex, was hosting U. S. Secretary of State James Baker and Eduard Shevardnadze, the minister of Foreign Affairs for the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, for the world peace accords at the end of the Cold War.

The location during a spectacular September period was Clay’s domain at Jackson Lake Lodge, nestled below the Teton Mountains between Jackson and Yellowstone.

My good fr...