Claude James Cory

Pacific Grove ~ Longtime Pacific Grove resident, Claude James Cory, passed away Sunday morning, June 12, at 12:55 am at his home. He had been suffering from congestive heart failure since March of the previous year and was under hospice care.

Claude was born Monday, November 8, 1915, to Perley and Carrie (Reviere) Cory on the Cory family farm, located at Five Corners, Pearl Street Road, about four miles from Watertown, New York. It was near what was then called Sanford Corners. He was their third and last child. His sister, Viva, was born in 1904 and his brother, Earl, in 1906.

If there is one thing that had kept Claude’s interest over the years, it was the automobile. He bought his first car at age 16 and drove for the next 76 years. Following his heart attack in March of 2010, he bought a 4-wheel scooter to get about town.

When Claude was sixteen he meet Phyllis Rebecca Sayer, age fourteen, at Black River High School, in Black River, NY. They announced their engagement on her eighteenth birthday in 1936 and were married two years later, April 27, 1938. Their 73rd anniversary became a front page story in the 2011 Memorial Day Weekend edition of the Monterey Herald.

Just after their marriage, Claude completed a course with the International Correspondence School and received his diploma in Automotive Electronics. He owned several service stations and worked, just before World War II, in the construction of Pine Camp, NY as an electrician’s assistant. During the war, he worked at North County Battery in Watertown, NY, maintaining automobile electronics and batteries for Pine Camp. Their first two children, Earl (1941) and Philip (1942), were born during this time.

As a child, Claude suffered from tuberculosis and as a result had severe asthma. In 1947, his doctor told him to go to Arizona. His cousin in Los Angeles, Vernon Cory, recommended California, but told him “bring your house with you.” They bought a 27-foot house trailer and the four of them moved to California during the severe winter of 1948.

They moved into The Mercury Trailer Park in Cudahy, CA. In March of 1948, he started work at Crown Coach Corporation where he wired school buses, fire trucks, tour buses, and mobile video tape studios. While living in the trailer park, two more children, Cecil (1949) and Iva (1950), were born. In 1950, they were able to move into a small house in South Gate, CA.

Television fascinated Claude. In 1949, he purchased his first set. He attended night school at South Gate High School to learn television repair. During this time, Claude was active in the Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts as Cub Master, Scout Master, Webelos Leader and a member of the Los Angeles Area Council for 16 years.

In 1964, while visiting their friends the Smiths, owners of Arundel Motel in Pacific Grove, they decided to open a T.V. business there. In 1965 they bought Diridoni T.V. & Radio at the corner of Lighthouse and Forest, their current residence on Pine Avenue, and moved to Pacific Grove. Over the next 15 years, they owned several T.V. and Radio businesses, were active in several civic organizations and became friends with numerous people in the community. In 1980, Claude turned 65; after a Christmas sale they closed their store. For the next 20 years he traveled, camped, and “worked” in his garage.

Claude is survived by his wife of 73 years, Phyllis Rebecca Cory; his four children, Earl, Philip, Cecil, and Iva Heitz; two grandchildren, Richard Cory and Sherry Heitz Sands and five great-grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his granchildren, Vibeke Cory and Cory Heitz.

For Claude, the 95-year- long journey from Sanford Corners, New York to Pacific Grove, California ended in his home on Sunday Morning, June 12, 2011. Funeral services will be held at St. Angela Merici Catholic Church at 1:00 pm, Saturday June 25, 2011. Claude will be interred in the Cory Family Plot at Sanford Corners Cemetery in Calcium, NY, two miles from his birth place.