The Town of Clayton will host a public memorial service for long-time Clayton Town Manager Steve Biggs at 11:00 AM Tuesday inside the auditorium at The Clayton Center located at 111 E. Second Street in Downtown Clayton.
A visitation with the family will follow the memorial service. A private interment will be held later in the day.
Due to the large number of people expected for the Memorial Service, the Town of Clayton Customer Service, Planning and Engineering Departments as well as the Clayton Library will be closed Tuesdayfrom 10:30 AM until 2:00 PM. The Clayton Community Center will remain open for recreation.
Biggs, 53, who retired last June after nearly 20 years as the Clayton Town Manager, passed away last Wednesday in Virginia, where he had been serving as the Town Manager of Christiansburg.
“Answers are difficult to come by and our hearts are broken and full of grief,” Clayton Mayor Jody McLeod said. “Our thoughts and prayers go out to Steve’s wife and children. We can all take pride in the fact that the legacy Steve Biggs created and built in Clayton will live forever.”
The Mayor’s fellow Councilmen echoed his statements.
“Steve was an unbelievable civic leader,” Mayor Pro Tem Michael Grannis said. “A leader with unquestioned abilities to make extremely hard decisions that, for the most part, were highly successful decisions that molded Clayton into the town it is today. Steve loved his wife and children beyond reproach as evidenced by the commitments he made to them throughout the years. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen husband and father with such a strong commitment toward his family. He will be missed but not ever forgotten.”
Steve Biggs left a tangible mark on Clayton in so many ways, Councilman Jason Thompson said. “All you have to do is look around our vibrant town and you can see so many things Steve was a part of. Steve made Clayton a better place, and he will be dearly missed.”
While still in his early 30’s in 1997, Biggs took over the helm at the Town of Clayton during some troubled financial times for the municipality. Biggs is credited for turning the Town’s finances around, and he helped usher in many successes, including the exemplary public-private partnership that helped the community save two abandoned school houses and transform them into The Clayton Center – a modern Town Hall and performing arts center that continue to serve the Town. Many agree the buildings might not be standing without Steve. Today, the flags there remain at half-staff in his honor.
Over the years, Biggs became more than just a manager, Councilman Butch Lawter said. He became a good friend.
“I was elected to Town Council in 1999 and we had a great professional relationship,” Lawter said. “He was one of the smartest people about more things in local government than anyone I had ever met. He seemed to have knowledge of everything and while, technically, I was his boss, I learned so much from him about how to lead and work with people. I watched him grow from someone who was not involved in 1997, to someone who was more involved in the community than most anyone. Over the past 20 years, we became good friends and I’m certainly going to miss him. He left his mark on Clayton, that’s for sure.”
A Go Fund Me Page has been established to assist his wife, Elissa, two daughters Everett and Emery, and a son, Erik.
