Tracy Clement

A Remembrance of a Wonderful Man

Born - 09/07/1915 in Lawrence, Kansas

Died - 06/07/2014 in Hemet, California

Levi Tracy Clement, Jr. was born September 7, 1915, in Lawrence, Kansas. His early years were spent in several small towns in Kansas, where his father operated small general stores. When Tracy was 9, his family settled in Olathe, Kansas, where his father operated a neighborhood grocery store. In addition to attending elementary school, Tracy worked in the family store and took piano lessons. One Sunday at the church his mother attended, he was asked to fill in for the absentee pianist. This launched an almost 90-year journey as a performing musician, and he continued to perform at organ or piano concerts until he was 97 years of age!

Tracy attended junior and senior high school in Olathe. He particularly enjoyed science courses. He played the clarinet and bass viol in the orchestra and was the piano accompanist for several vocal groups. He also worked regularly at his father's store. One of Tracy's early chores was bagging sugar and navy beans in 1 or 2 pound paper sacks and tying them with a string. Around 1930, the old family store was torn down and a new store was built. Tracy did the electrical wiring in the new store. The inspector couldn't believe a boy his age could do it, so he gave the store a very thorough inspection but found no problems. This story offers no surprises-Tracy was always committed to doing things well!

Tracy attended Ottawa University at Ottawa, Kansas and graduated in 1937. During his college years, he worked at a dairy delivering milk and ice, and he operated a printing press for a local business. Although he and his eventual wife Trenna Goodwin were of the same age and attended the same university, Tracy and Trenna didn't really meet or interact during these college years-in fact, their only interaction was when Tracy delivered ice to the Goodwin house in Ottawa during Trenna's senior year. Tracy's musical activities were limited to playing the piano for a country music group. His undergraduate transcript depicted his life-long talents and interests-he received A's or B's in courses such as Analytical Geometry, Integral Calculus, Differential Equations, Electrical Measurements, and Physics. In contrast, his grades in many of the social science classes were..... well, lower.

After graduation, Tracy taught at several high schools in rural Kansas. In 1938, he started going with his wife-to-be, Trenna Goodwin, a teaching colleague at Lane, Kansas. They married in Ottawa, KS on June 22, 1940. They shared the joys and challenges of life for many, many years and celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary before Trenna's death in 2010.

After their wedding, Tracy and Trenna moved to Kansas City, Missouri, where Tracy worked as an office manager and an accountant until enlisting in the Navy in early 1942, shortly after the Pearl Harbor attack. He was stationed at the flight training center at the Naval Air Station in Olathe, and then served on Samar Island in the Philippines until the end of World War II.

Tracy was never afraid of hard work. After the war, he almost always held several different jobs at the same time. His list of jobs testifies to his many talents and abilities. He worked as an office manager and as an accountant for several businesses. He worked in the engineering department of General Motors Aviation. He started and operated a small printing shop. Using two printing presses in the basement of the family house, Tracy printed weekly bulletins for churches in Kansas City as well as catalogs for an antique car dealership. Printing in this pre-digital era required artistic ability to prepare engravings as well as an impressive level of physical stamina. He and Trenna also started and operated a company that rented films, projectors, or other audio-visual equipment to churches and other organizations in the Kansas City area. On Sundays, Tracy was the audio-visual director for a prominent Baptist church.

After more than a decade of private business activities, Trenna and Tracy resumed their careers in the field of education. After teaching two years in Edison, Nebraska (a rural town of 310 people), they moved to Lincoln, where Tracy attended graduate school and received his Masters of Education degree. In 1963, he joined the Great Plain National Instruction Television Library, one of 11 libraries established to distribute instructional TV classes to high schools across the country. During the many years he worked as the Associate Director of the library, it became the premier facility of this nature in the United States. Tracy was a very dedicated and hard-working employee, and his efforts were instrumental in the growth and prosperity of the library. He retired from this position when he was 65 years old in 1980.

During their retirement years, Tracy and Trenna moved to Hemet, CA, and Tracy continued to pursue his diverse interests and display his many talents. He and Trenna enjoyed travelling in their RVs, and they would take extended trips each year, visiting friends and relatives as they viewed (and photographed) everything of interest along the way. Visits to the YMCA Camp of the Rockies in Estes Park, CO, and Glacier Basin Campground at Rocky Mountain National Park were particularly favored.

Tracy was always intrigued by machines and gadgets-he loved to understand how things worked and to experiment with their use. The technological advances of the era provided a perfect setting, and Tracy was able to enjoy activities that included photography, auto maintenance, carpentry, handyman duties around the house, and providing audio-visual services for churches (or anyone who asked for help). He became adept at computer graphics and prepared programs for performances by a number of different musical groups. When performance time arrived, he dutifully recorded the show and then edited the tape or video for distribution to the members of the group. His willingness to help anyone do anything was recognized, and he received several "Volunteer of the Year" awards for his unwavering service.

As was typical for men of his generation (and particularly for men who were only children), Tracy was not an intuitive primary caretaker for his children-those duties were left for their mother (Trenna) and their maternal grandmother (Bonnie Goodwin), who lived with the family from 1942-1968. However, he was interested and involved in the growth and activities of his children and grandchildren, and he took great pride in their accomplishments.

Tracy loved to talk with (or, more accurately, talk to) people - this statement will certainly provoke smiles among those who knew him. He was famous for both the length of his "conversations" and his ability to provide almost all of the input - particularly if the subject involved a technical subject, such as how a microphone works. Not infrequently, these episodes would end when Trenna would intervene with a curt "Tracy, get to the point..." order. There was a reason why this happened so commonly-Tracy truly loved to interact with people, and there were SO many things in the world that he found interesting-he wanted to share his knowledge and the sense of excitement he felt with others. His family celebrates and honors the life and memory of this kind, generous, loving and talented man.