Clem Roy, one of the most colorful characters in a Capitol building full of characters, died Tuesday at Hartford Hospital after suffering from brain cancer.
Roy, a 64-year-old Republican, had been laughing and joking in the Legislative Office Building in Hartford only four weeks ago, but the fast-moving cancer had confined him over the past week to the Harry Gray cancer center at the hospital.
"No guy enjoyed life more than Clem every day - every single day,'' said former state Republican chairman Richard Foley. "Always had a story. Always had a joke. How many ways can you say unique? One of a kind.''
A fun-loving, casino-gambling, cigar-smoking, golf-playing tobacco lobbyist, Roy enjoyed providing anecdotes about his various and frequent trips to the casinos.
"He was a man about town,'' said Foley, who first met Clem when Foley was serving as a Republican legislator in January 1983. "He drank deeply from the cup of life. ... He knew restaurants. He knew bars - everywhere in America.''
In trying to get another casino in Connecticut, Foley worked for casino kingpin Donald Trump. He recruited Roy and his longtime lobbying partner, H. Craig LeRoy, for the effort with Trump, but their efforts were unsuccessful.
Once news spread about Roy's cancer, a steady stream of legislators and friends poured into his hospital room. Former Gov. John G. Rowland was there. Former Senate Republican leader Louis DeLuca and his wife came, too. House Republican leader Larry Cafero arrived on Thursday before hurrying back to the Capitol to vote.
When Rowland walked into Hartford Hospital last week, he met a hospital employee who recognized him.
"She said, 'I know who you're here to see,' '' Rowland said, adding that the employee had asked who was the mystery patient with the high-profile friends. "Someone said, he's a legend.''
Rowland had played golf with Roy, but he said that Roy's golf game suffered because he talked so much on the course.
"He loves a good cigar and a brandy and a good steak and the best wine,'' Rowland said Tuesday as he spoke about Roy in the present tense. "He is the ultimate uncle. He is the father confessor, the go-to uncle. He was so much fun to be with. He had a certain indescribable charm. ... I'd be playing golf with him, and he'd ask if I had any cigars. I said, 'Dude, you're the tobacco lobbyist, and you're asking me for cigars?' ''
A West Hartford resident who grew up in Bristol, Roy also had a fierce loyalty to Hartford and Connecticut. He was once playing golf at a fancy country club on Cape Cod in a celebrity tournament with a format where the players are scrambled and do not know who they are playing with. When Roy was told that he would be playing with New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, he refused. Kraft had said he was bringing his famed football team to Hartford in the late 1990s, but then he switched course.
"Clem refused to play in the foursome,'' Rowland told Capitol Watch. "He's a very principled guy.''