Leon C. Camp
CHARLOTTESVILLE—Leon Clay Camp, 78, died May 4, 2009, at his home.
He was born in Marion, S.C. on Oct. 8, 1930. He was the younger son of William M. Camp and Edith Clay Camp.
Mr. Camp was preceded in death by Barbara PeaseCamp, with whom he had celebrated a 50th wedding anniversary last year.
He attended The Woodberry Forest School, Hampden-Sidney and the University of Virginia.
He was a lifelong horseman who grew up working with draft and show horses and who, with wife Barbara, spent the majority of his working life as a leading consigner of thoroughbred race horses under his Glenmore Farm banner.
For many years a fixture of the Saratoga summer yearling sales, he still holds the record for the highest priced yearling ever sold there.
He was also very proud to have had the opportunity to represent the United States as a member of the USET in the 1980 FEI combined Driving/World Championships in Europe.
He served as a director on a variety of boards including: that of the Atlantic Rural Exposition (now the Virginia State Fair), the Virginia Thoroughbred Association — for which he served two terms as president, the Kentucky Horse Park, Bluegrass Tomorrow, the Lexington Triangle Park, the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation and the Virginia Horse Center.
He was also a founder and the first president of the Virginia Horse Council and served as a District Delegate to the Republican State Convention.
Additionally, he served as president of the Carrie S. Camp Foundation and was a past member of Farmington Country Club, the Keeneland Association, Glenmore Country Club, the Governor’s Trade Commission, the Elks Club, the Possum Society of Virginia Tech and the Delegate’s Council of the Madison Cabinet-Montpelier Foundation.
Survivors include his brother and sister-in-law, Mr. and Mrs. William M. Camp Jr.; his four children, L. Clay Camp Jr. and wife Gale, June Page Camp, Carrie Camp Gibbons and husband Joel and Jefferson Clay Camp and wife Jennifer; and his grandchildren, Amy Graziano, Caroline Camp, Woods Gibbons and Clay Gibbons.
A graveside service will be held at 11 a.m. Friday at Poplar Spring Cemetery in Franklin.
The family will receive friends at the home of Mr. and Mrs. William Camp following the service.
In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Virginia Horse Center or the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation.
Hill and Wood Funeral Home, Charlottesville, is handling arrangements.