Obituary for Stuart Davidson
Stuart Carleton Davidson, founder of Washington, D.C.'s Clyde's Restaurant Group, died suddenly at 78 in Norway on August 1, 2001, due to acute myelogenous leukemia, in the course of traveling in the Arctic Circle with his wife, Sally.
Davidson led an extraordinary life that prepared him well to launch and preside over what has become one of the nation's most successful and popular restaurant companies. On August 12, 1963, Davidson opened Clyde's of Georgetown because, as he said, Washington "lacked a good saloon." Restrictive D.C. liquor laws had been repealed; the town was full of a wide variety of new people drawn to Washington during the Kennedy Administration, yet there was no gathering spot. Davidson saw that the city needed a comfortable and unpretentious place offering good drinks and simple but high-quality food. He envisioned a saloon similar to those he had enjoyed in his travels, and opened the first Clyde's in the tradition of "an American bar" (not a pub or bistro). Davidson summed up his philosophy succinctly by saying, "It's more fun to eat in a saloon than to drink in a restaurant." Clyde's of Georgetown was an immediate success.
With the help of Davidson's partner, John G. Laytham, Clyde's Restaurant Group has grown into the largest privately held restaurant group in the metropolitan area and a Washington institution. In addition to the original Clyde's of Georgetown, the Group includes Clyde's of Columbia, Clyde's of Tysons Corner, Clyde's of Reston, Clyde's of Chevy Chase, Clyde's at Mark Center, Old Ebbitt Grill, 1789 Restaurant, The Tombs, and The Tomato Palace.
Davidson was credited with a genius for hosting, making diners from all walks of life feel at home, and created a distinctive ambience in every restaurant he founded. Before embarking on a career as a restaurateur, he was an investment banker with Kidder-Peabody and Wertheim & Co. A man of distinguished education, he was a cultivated patron of literature and arts who spoke several languages and was a walking treasury of quotations, poems, and songs perfectly memorized and delivered with gusto. He traveled widely throughout his life, beginning in his youth when his father, General Howard C. Davidson and mother Mary Perrine Patterson, took their family from one U.S. Army assignment to the next. Educated at St. Albans School, Harvard College (where he studied with noted Classicist John H. Finley), and Harvard Business School, Davidson was a polished scholar and enthusiastic outdoorsman. He took up kayaking in his sixties and was a supporter of the Bethesda Center for Excellence, which trained members of the U.S. Olympic Team. Davidson also sponsored Davey Hearn, elite canoe/kayak slalom racer, in the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney. He and his wife Sally have long supported the Washington Opera and American Rivers. He was a member of the Society of Cincinnati and served in the Army Air Corps during World War Two. In 1998, Davidson was awarded the Duke Zeibert Lifetime Achievement Award by the Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington.
Davidson is survived by his wife of 29 years, Sally Foulis Davidson; three sisters, Mary Howard Davidson Swift of Washington, D.C., Julia Shaw Davidson Cheshire of Florida, and Frances Patterson Davidson Bortz of Pennsylvania; four children, Ellen Lindsay Davidson Shea of New York, Olga (Holly) Merck Davidson Boszormenyi-Nagy of Massachusetts, Stuart Patterson Davidson of California, and Alexander Johnston Davidson of Massachusetts; seven grandchildren and numerous nieces and nephews.