Clyde Edison Peach Jr.

Clyde Edison Peach Jr. died on Wednesday October 19th 2022 while listening to a football game and surrounded by his family. He is survived by his wife, Judy Peach, as well as three children, Anne, Robert, and Wylie.

Clyde was born in Saugus, Massachusetts on November 16th, 1947. His mother was a homemaker and teacher who was awarded the Sagamore on the Wabash. His father was a brace man who served in the U.S. Navy in the Pacific Theater on the battleship U.S.S. Massachusetts. Together Jessie and Clyde Peach Sr. had three children Clyde, Patti, and Pam.

They moved from Saugus to Kankakee, Illinois in the early fifties before settling in Indianapolis.

As a kid, Clyde Peach Jr., also known as “Bubba” to his sisters and “Bumps” to his beloved Aunt Mary Louise, loved playing trumpet and aviation.

Clyde went to Ben Davis High School for a year before transferring to Brebeuf Jesuit in 1963 at his mother’s wishes. He played football on the famous undefeated squad and ran on the track team, becoming a national track figure in the process.

He won state in 1966 in both the 100 and 220 yard dashes. His 100 time was 9.5 seconds, breaking the state record and putting him in the conversation for fastest human on planet earth. The 9.5 time stood until 1980 when races began to be measured in meters instead of yards. Because of this change, Clyde’s record remains unbroken.

He chose Baylor University for college driving down across the Brazos in a silver Chavelle his father promised he would buy him–and did, in cash–if he won a scholarship.

At Baylor he began by studying physical education and was coached by Clyde Hart on the track team.

“Speed is the most important quality an athlete can possess,” Clyde later wrote. “The ballistic power of a super sprinter turning his body up to maximum human velocity is exciting to watch. Releasing speed naturally, a premiere hundred meter sprinter will in ten violent seconds or less expend maximum energy to complete a race in fierce mental states of passive aggression. There can be only the single focus of the finish line as sprinters power their alter egos through fields of space time at thirty-three feet per second.”

The pinnacle of Clyde’s track career came during the legendary “Night of Speed” – June 20th, 1968 the U.S. outdoor track and field championships in Sacramento, California. Clyde ran a 10.1 that night, but the world record would be set by another in the same race in what was the fastest heat in track history up to that moment. His dream of wearing a U.S. Olympic team jacket was not to be.

It was then that he decided to focus on his studies, switching to an accounting major and foregoing further exploits at the track.

He worked nights at a bus station–The Texas Electric Bus Line–to pay his tuition when he stopped sprinting and lost his scholarship.

After college he went to work for the ExxonMobil corporation in Houston, Texas as an accountant. It was here that his passion for golf sprouted during many bleary early morning rounds at Memorial Park Golf Course in Houston.

At Exxon he met Judy Morcom, commenting upon meeting her that he didn’t care for her shoes. They married soon after.

They moved back to Indianapolis much to the chagrin of the southern born Judy where Clyde’s father had started a business with partners called Indiana Brace Company – an institution that would operate with great success with Clyde at the helm for twenty years before being sold in the early nineties.

After Indiana Brace was sold, Clyde eventually continued his business career starting a new company called Peach Medical which offered a line of best-in-the-world orthotics and other products. Clyde sold inserts, custom face masks, and bespoke back braces that he manufactured in his workshop.

He authored a book on golf called “From the Driving Range”, which included a scorecard designed by Clyde.

He owned several airplanes–single engine turboprops–that he ferried his family around the country in on many extraordinary family vacations only almost crashing a handful of times.

Clyde is most famous for his bedtime stories, however. He concocted a series of parables called “Don’t Touch the Red Button” in which a protagonist (usually a young child) is admonished not to touch a “red button” on an airplane, boat, or even spaceship. When curiosity overcame the main character and the red button was invariably pressed all hell would break loose. Many laughs were shared during the telling of these tales.

He made many great friends along the way.

A visitation for Clyde will be held Tuesday, October 25, 2022 from 5:00 PM to 7:00 PM at Brebeuf Preparatory School Chapel, 2801 W. 86th Street, Indianapolis, IN 46268, followed by a memorial service at 7:00 PM.

Memorial contributions may be made to The Brebeuf Fund c/o Brebeuf Jesuit Preparatory School, 2801 W. 86th Street, Indianapolis, IN 46268.