ForeverMissed
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His Life
May 15, 2013
Melissa

Arthur Clayton Yangming Lee was born in Taipei, Taiwan on May 22nd, 1959. His father, the late Frank Suchuing Lee, worked for the US government, and his mother Judy was a devoted homemaker. The fourth of five children, Clayton traveled across the globe with his family during his early childhood—Frankfurt (Germany), Rangoon (Burma), Djakarta (Indonesia), back to Taiwan, and then to Hong Kong. He returned to the US in 1975, and graduated from Northfield-Mt. Hermon Preparatory School in Massachusetts in 1977.

Following in his father’s footsteps, Clayton developed an interest in politics and international affairs, engaging in nightly debates with his father and brother while doing the dishes, as he liked to recall. And like his older brother Mark, Clayton also fell in love with music at a young age, and quickly developed a facility on the guitar. He and his brother played together during high school – good times, music, girls and fun. He also was an avid model builder and spent hours building and flying large remote control model airplanes.

Clayton graduated from MIT in Boston in 1981 with a BS in Aeronautical Engineering. Having spent several years in the ROTC during college, Clayton joined the US Air Force, working at the USAF Satellite Control Center in Sunnyvale, California. After four years in the Air Force, he took a job with IBM, working both as a systems engineer and marketing representative. While living in Manhattan Beach, California, he began to cultivate his life-long love of playing music and sharing good times. He played in a number of local restaurants and bars in southern California, including a little place call Poco’s, where he developed quite a following.

In 1990, Clayton began working for Helios Corporation, also in Sunnyvale, California. He was Director of Product Management, leading a staff of 15 or more engineers and technicians, designing manufacturing equipment for the disk drive industry. In 1994 Clayton moved to Charlotte, NC, taking a job with CSI-Seltrol/Motionex where was responsible for field sales of automation equipment for manufacturing companies in the Charlotte area. He lived in Charlotte and again found places to play his music and made many friends with a similar love of music and good times. In 2000, Clayton worked for Syneractive, a software development firm, and he moved to Rock Hill, South Carolina.

In 2004, reflecting on his international upbringing, and after visiting relatives abroad, Clayton decided to move to China--both because of his familial roots, as well as the robust growth and global attention there. Before embarking on his journey, Clayton spent a summer in Boston—returning to the city where completed his formal education and first embarked on adult life—earning a TEFL certificate and preparing his move.

Clayton arrived in Shanghai in the fall of 2004, full of energy and enthusiasm for his new direction in life. He quickly found work as an English teacher, and found gigs as a musician. He took naturally to expatriate life, learned some Chinese, and experimented with a number of businesses and ventures. In 2006, he began working with VCareers, a training, teaching and consulting firm. He loved designing programs that would not only teach English or business skills, but were engaging and fun. He designed his own Jeopardy games, contests, interactive activities and skits that made his programs very popular. He spent 7 years teaching, coaching and leading seminars in China, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Thailand and Malaysia, and specialized in helping executives develop skills in negotiations, conflict management, presentations, and business writing. He also provided one-on-one coaching for high-level executives of companies such as Coca-Cola, Ford Motor Company, Ingersoll-Rand, Diageo and LVMH.

Clayton was a fixture on the Shanghai music scene. His music brought him and others much joy, and he formed a great number of fast friendships. One of the things heard most often about Clayton is that he was a down-to-earth guy that brought so many people into the music scene. He was known to say, “Hey, come on up here and make a fool of yourself with me,” when a musician expressed shyness. He put people together and was a likeable, warm and adventurous friend to many. He played in several bands around Shanghai and in establishments such as the Southern Belle, Oscar’s Pub, The Blarney Stone, BeDees, the Wooden Box. Clayton’s musical ensembles also played for large, high-profile events such as the Shanghai Tennis Open, the AMCHAM Independence Day, the 2008 Olympics and The Shanghai Expo.

People who got to know and love Clayton remember his intelligence, wit and his acceptance of everyone, even if he didn’t agree with their politics or beliefs. And he loved to talk and debate about politics, current events, music, science, business, as well as spiritual issues. Conversations with him on almost any topic could last into the night, punctuated by great insights and humor. He loved a heated argument, but in the end, Clayton always recognized that people, love and respect were the most important aspects of life.

Clayton is survived by his mother, Judy Crowell Lee, sisters Lynda, Niki and Tanya, and brother Mark, and preceded in death by his father, Frank Lee, who passed in 2003. He will be sorely missed by his entire extended family and great host of friends and fellow explorers all over the world.

There are so many stories of Clayton’s love of friends and family and good times, and we hope you will take the time here to share any that you might have on this memorial website in the Stories section.