2020 Inducted into the New England LMSC Hall of Fame (Contributor)
1996-1997 NELMSC Chair
1986-1996 USMS Marketing Committee, Chair 1992-1996
1983 Inducted into the Brown Athletic Hall of Fame
1982-1991 NELMSC Chair
1978 February NEM News Mini-Profile of D Barr Clayson
1976-1977 NEM President
USMS Records
Pool – 5 lifetime relay
USMS All-American
Pool – 11 individual, 5 relay
USMS Top Ten – 228 individual, 20 relay
Club: New England Masters (NEM)
Barr was born in 1935 in Pittsfield and made his home in Weston, and Naples, FL. Barr graduated from South Kent School in 1954 and Brown University in 1958 where he was president of his senior class. He then served two years with the U.S. Navy, first aboard the U.S.S. Antietam and then in New Haven, CT, training at Yale with the Naval ROTC Swim Team for the 1960 Olympics and Pan American Games.
An All-American swimmer at Brown University, Barr was training to compete in trials for the U.S. Olympic team in 1960 when illness curtailed his aspirations. Having a lifelong love for swimming, he took up swimming again as a Master and quickly became competitive. He was a member of the New England Masters Swim Club, serving as a president for many years. His many accomplishments included All-American honors, Masters National Champion, and three gold medals at the World Masters Games in Edmonton, Canada in 2005.
From the Brown Athletic Hall of Fame Website:
Davis Barr Clayson ’58 has had two lives in swimming, a brilliant undergraduate career leading to All-American honors in 1958, and then a sensational comeback in Master’s swimming that brought him additional All-American honors. And yet, none of this might have happened except for an incident that took place in his freshman year. Based on his size, ability, and prep school reputation, the 6-foot-2-inch, 195-pounder from Pittsfield, Mass., and South Kent School appeared to become one of the standouts at end on the Brown’s football squad. But he suffered a serious head injury halfway through his freshman season and was advised to give up the sport. So, although Coach Al Kelley lost a promising end, Joe Watmough gained one of the best swimming prospects in the school’s history.
But that’s what Barr Clayson was at that point, a prospect. The potential was there, even though the competitive background was nil. What he did have was fine coordination, a powerful kick, and the secret to it all – a strong desire to hone his skills by working hard and absorbing the words of wisdom uttered by Coach Watmough.
Evidence of Clayson’s rapid development is that he improved his time in the 200-yard backstroke from three minutes flat to 2:26 in one year. ‘Of all the swimmers I coached, none showed the steady improvement Barr did during those years we spent together at Lyman Pool,’ Coach Watmough said recently. The years Watmough refers to brought Barr Clayson Brown records in the 200, 100, and 50-yard backstroke events, a host of Colgate Hoyt Pool records, and a New England AAU mark in the 100-yard backstroke.
In dual meet competition, he was undefeated in his junior year and lost only once, to Yale, as a senior. After narrowly missing making the U.S. Olympic team in 1960, Barr Clayson took a 17-year hiatus from swimming before joining the Master’s program and setting new records. He was national record holder in the backstroke events in both 1980 and 1981 and was named to the Master’s All-American teams in 1977, 1978, 1979, 1981, and 1982. He’s currently a director of U.S. Master Swimming, Inc.
During his prep school days in Connecticut, Clayson was president of his class for five straight years. He’s also president of his class at Brown, has served as a member of the National Steering Committee of the Brown University Fund, and was chairman of the 25th Reunion Gift Committee for 1958 a year ago. Barr is managing director and chief investment officer of Standish, Ayer & Wood, Inc., of Boston. He and Pamela live in Weston, Mass., from where they have sent all three children to Brown – Jennifer ’81, Davis ’86, and Wendy ’87.”