Clay Hamilton

In the Woody Allen “mockumentary” Zelig, Leonard Zelig managed to interact with a sort of “chameleon” ability at all sorts of events throughout the 1920s and 1930s. He fit into whatever environment he encountered.

Similarly, Herbert Clayton “Clay” Hamilton could be found at just about every event and function in Miami-Dade County over the past couple of decades. Unlike Zelig, though, Hamilton didn’t fade into the background. Often sporting a black vest and wide-brimmed Panama hat, Hamilton made a point of standing out, making inspiring comments and laughing really loudly when a joke was uttered by himself or someone he was conversing with.

But on Tuesday, July 31, police were called to Hamilton’s South Beach apartment, where he was found about 5:30 p.m. The cause of death, according to the Miami-Dade Medical Examiner Department, was heart disease.

Hamilton had three children, Veronica “Vee” McBride, Saunders Hamilton and Laura Hamilton. “It took a lot to get my dad upset,” said McBride, a paralegal. “He felt that life was a blessing and a gift. He wanted to live every day to the fullest and he did.”

“Clay always lit up the room and he never failed to bring on a smile, in even the most hardened cynic,” Daniella Levine, president and CEO of the Human Services Coalition, wrote in a statement. “Clay’s attitude towards life was unfailingly optimistic.”

In addition to his volunteer work with the HSC, Hamilton was also active in several other nonprofit and arts organizations, participating in events that would raise funds, and awareness, for those less fortunate. And Hamilton was all about having a good time, dancing at parties and singing loudly at gospel events.

Born in Ohio, Hamilton moved to Atlanta but made Miami his home in his elementary years, McBride said. He served in the Navy for two years. In the early 1970s he attended Miami-Dade Community College and Florida International University.

“He was always kind of an in-your-face, upbeat engaging guy who was impossible to ignore,” said Seth Gordon, a partner in the public relations firm Gordon Reyes, who met Hamilton when they both were attending Miami-Dade. “He would make everyone he came in contact with feel they were his best friend and he was very sincere about it.”

“I knew Clay Hamilton when he was a student at FIU. He was an extremely well-regarded campus leader,” said Ric Katz, president of Communikatz and an associate vice president of FIU from 1971 to 1983.

Then Hamilton gravitated toward Ithaca, N.Y., where he became a stockbroker for Dean Witter and a top producer for the Copeland Companies, said Tanya Saunders, Hamilton’s ex-wife. “He was a very intelligent man, very charming, very socially engaging,” she said.

Hamilton was also active in theater production shows at Cornell University, McBride said. He would continue to act and sing when he returned to Miami. “He did a lot of plays for Barry University. He did a lot of acting and singing,” she said. “He was the greatest actor.”

Hamilton drew on his Dean Witter experience to write an advice column for Miami Times. But most of his work for Miami newspapers, including Miami New Times, the SunPost and the Gospel Truth, among others, was in advertising sales. Hamilton worked at this newspaper for about six years, until January 2006. While here he founded and contributed to an annual supplement called “The Talented Ten,” which profiled 10 positive, influential leaders in Miami-Dade’s black community. Hamilton himself was a graduate of the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce’s Leadership Miami program.

“Clay had built a lot of solid and long-term relationships in the community both personally and professionally,” said Andrew Stark, publisher of the SunPost. “Everyone knew him. He himself was ubiquitous.”

Hamilton worked at the Gospel Truth since its start in 1992 until his death. “Clay was unbelievably special,” said Sandy Walker, the monthly newspaper’s publisher. “He was a blessing to the Gospel Truth and had been with us for many years. We appreciated him not only from a sales standpoint, but one of his greatest legacies was that we knew him to be a wealth of information, willing to share and advocate. We are certainly going to miss him.”

“He was like a big brother to me as far as the paper goes,” said Jamil Rivers, editor of the Gospel Truth. “He basically taught me the ropes about Miami, taught me the newspaper business.” Rivers remembered beating himself up over mistakes until Hamilton counseled him. “He would say, ‘Oh, so you are human.’”

Hamilton was particularly active in political organizations related to the Democratic Party as well as several charitable organizations, particularly the Human Services Coalition.

“He was not a usual HSC board member,” Levine said in a prepared statement. “He was our VP for almost two years. He attached himself to us. We easily incorporated him into our fold. His typical and elegant African garb, topped off with a jaunty hat, and often shirtless under the elegant vest, made him visible from a great distance.”

Created “to empower individuals and communities to create a more just and equitable society by promoting civic engagement, economic fairness, and access to health and human services that address unmet needs,” the HSC benefited from Hamilton’s networking skills. “Clay knew everyone in town and he laughed his way into their pocketbooks for the benefit of HSC,” Levine wrote. “How did he get us the band, the liquor, the newspaper ads? He had a strategy not always revealed and we just chuckled at his wild success.”

Hamilton was also very active in the Miami Beach Rotary Club, a chapter in a worldwide organization whose members are encouraged to participate in community service and programs that will help eliminate illiteracy and poverty. More than once Hamilton was elected president of the club, most recently in 2004.

Garth Thompson, a pastor at the Miami Beach Community Church, knew Hamilton from his own participation in the Rotary Club. “He brought a lot of creativity and altruism,” Thompson said. Hamilton found ways to organize Rotary events as well as parties for children with disabilities and special needs. “He made sure that [the events] not only happened but … that they were bright and powerful.”

“Clay spearheaded a lot of global causes as president,” said Janine Sylvestre, who became president of Rotary Club of Miami Beach last month. “He was so outgoing, vocal about the club, so we miss that.”

Besides being generous, Hamilton was gregarious. At clubs or parties he would dance at any opportunity. (He used to say dancing was his way of spiritually expressing himself.) Lorna Ownes, a Miami-based motivational speaker and lawyer, remembered first seeing Hamilton in a video for a release party she hosted. “We are looking at our video and we were thinking, ‘Who is that person who was dancing up a storm?’ I don’t know how he got into my party.”

Owens said she later became close friends with Hamilton. “He was one of my best supporters. I just thought he was an amazing human being.”

Hamilton also liked to sing. Karaoke was one of his favorite pastimes, McBride remembered. But that hobby was nothing compared to Hamilton’s love of gospel singing.

“We used to go to Unity Church on the Bay,” Owens remembered. “He sang loud, and he enjoyed singing, and danced loud. He was the loudest. … You couldn’t miss him. …”

Hamilton also participated in Gospelfest events at the Miami Beach Community Church.

Hamilton was simply about “living life to the fullest with no conditions,” Owens said. “… He partied with a purpose.”

“In the past few years as his career declined, Clay still exuded optimism and love for others,” the HSC’s Levine wrote. “It is that joy and thirst for life that I will always remember.”

“One of the things I will always remember about Clay Hamilton is one of his favorite quotes. If you asked him how he was, he would say, ‘I am a happy man,’” the SunPost’s Stark said.

In recent months, Hamilton became less active at the Miami Beach Rotary Club after its main operation moved to North Beach. Hamilton used a bike for his transportation and said he would not be able to make the meetings. Still, he assisted wherever he could. During a recent book drive for Ayuda, Hamilton “brought in a whole bunch of books,” said Bill Coffman, a public adjustor and past president of the Miami Beach Rotary Club.

Sylvestre said she lost contact with Hamilton over the last year. Recently she realized she had never told Hamilton she was elected president of the Rotary. “I was so grateful for his teachings,” she said. Then she got an e-mail informing her that Hamilton had died. “I was shocked. … I was just thinking about him the other day. … Life got so busy.”

McBride last talked to her father on Father’s Day. Jamil Rivers said he last talked to Hamilton by phone toward the end of July. He didn’t sound ill or depressed, he said. “He sounded fine. … I didn’t have any indication he wasn’t OK.” Then, last Friday, Rivers noticed Hamilton’s voice mail was full. Hamilton always checked his voice mail. “[Then] I knew something was wrong.”

A wake will be held at 7 p.m. Friday, Aug. 10, at the Barrett-Fryar Funeral Home at 14545 Carver Drive in Richmond Heights followed by a 1:30 p.m. funeral Saturday, Aug. 11 at Second Baptist Church, 11111 Pinkston Drive, Richmond Heights.