Clinton Jay Sheerr – 50th Reunion Essay

Clinton Jay Sheerr

Date of Death: 8-Sep-1997

College: Pierson

From the American Institute of Architects website: Clinton Sheerr, AIA was a well-known New Hampshire architect who died in 1997 and whose uncommon love for the profession and the state is memorialized through this honor award. Sheerr was responsible for designing numerous award-winning New Hampshire buildings, notably the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation and St. Paul’s Church, and was active in professional and community organizations.

Sheerr exemplified the spirit of great passion for beauty and design, a dedication to the community, and the tenacity to follow one’s tasks and dreams. This [Clinton Sheer] award honors other similarly outstanding architects or Honorary AIA members in the state who carry on the tradition of deep love and dedication for the State, its architecture and environment. Deirdre Sheerr-Gross, AIA created the fund for the award in honor of Clint, and it is supported by donations in his memory.

From Richard Wolf: Clint Sheerr roomed with Bruce Weinstein and me during our freshman year. At a point when I was trying to figure out if I belonged at Yale, he was a solid, sane presence for me… Clint’s interest in the arts, breadth of academic knowledge, self-confidence, and sophistication in general both cowed and inspired me.

I think it would have been easy for Clint to dismiss me as a stolid provincial, but he was inevitably a cordial and helpful suitemate. Our main source of good-natured ragging was his exaggerated pretense to East Coast ignorance of/indifference to the hinterlands, as in his continually conflating Indianapolis (my home) with Minneapolis. Clint’s relationship with Bruce was more interesting. In particular, I remember a musical debate that progressed from dueling records (at top volume) to “Paint it Black” being flung out our third-floor Wright Hall window.

From Norman Resnicow: An energetic, effervescently funny, creative multi-talent, Clint was a serious intellect without ponderous intellectualism. One Halloween Clint led fellow roommate Bob DeLorenzo and me to dress in drag (two softballs each) to trick-or-treat at Brewster’s digs. Clint took a timer photo of our winsome threesome, titling it “Resnicow and Sheerr Contemplating the Bust of DeLorenzo.” Classic Clint highbrow/lowbrow.

At Yale Architecture, Clint was struck by Hodgkin’s Disease. He took his illness with amazing grace and humor. Recovered via radiation therapy, Clint worked for New York starchitect I.M. Pei. Clint’s second bout of Hodgkins-related illness in his late 20s led him to move to New Hampshire—not a semi-retirement or slowdown, rather a “change my lifestyle.”

Clint designed the house of his dreams. Clint built his stunning new home overlooking Little Lake Sunnapee. Around the entire living room, he placed a high painted wallband of inspiring quotations (Einstein and Anne Frank come to mind). The English major architect knew exactly what he wanted to create and how he wanted to live. Later Clint found himself single (radiation treatments meant no children). With his second wife, architect Deirdre McChrystal, Clint established a firm in Newport. They built or renovated 17 buildings on Newport’s Main Street.

Clint then beat his third Hodgkins hit. He remained optimistic and confident. I never heard him utter a word of feeling sorry for himself. In his remaining years, Clint painted, photographed, wrote an (unpublished) novel, skied, hiked New Hampshire mountains—all with gusto and guts.

I was honored to deliver one of Clint’s eulogies. The funeral was in a historic church in Concord, New Hampshire restored by Clint after a fire. That Clint—a lifelong proud Jew—had his funeral in a church (with a cantor) reflected Clint’s creativity, talent, drive and humor. Fittingly, as essential Clint, figures in the restored stained-glass windows bore the faces of Clint, Deirdre and friends. Clint viewed his own funeral from on high, getting the last laugh. I still miss him.