Mack Clayton was a mover from the beginning.
His mother, Alma Clayton, sent him off to kindergarten at age 5 and expected him to be there a half-day but he was gone all day. When she attended the school’s first PTA meeting she found out he had enrolled in first grade. He could already read and write, so that’s where he was put.
A student all his life, Clayton decided in the first grade to be a doctor. And he became one of the premier orthopedic surgeons, teaching his skills all over the world.
Clayton died Feb. 26. He was 85.
Friends talk about his idea of style as well as his mastery of surgery.
He often wore “horizontal and vertical stripes with some plaid thrown in” when he played golf, said a friend and former medical partner, Dr. Morey Susman of Denver.
Clayton loved to wear blinking ties at Christmastime and lived in cowboy boots. When his daughter, Lee Clayton Roper, was a debutante, she insisted he wear dress shoes with his tuxedo. He reluctantly did so, but took his boots in a sack and changed after the presentation was finished, Roper said.
Clayton was fishing with friends near Steamboat Springs several years ago when he got separated and spent 40 hours before he found his way out.
With his usual aplomb, he went on fishing, built a fire and had dinner. He finally found a sheepherder who directed him to safety.
Clayton’s attitude about his profession was, “I can fix it and you can use it,” his daughter said.
“He was known all over the world” for his surgery on people suffering from rheumatism, said a former partner, Dr. Don Ferlic of Denver.
A rheumatic foot surgery was named for him, he designed a total hip replacement (his was a modification of earlier ones) and he pioneered hand surgery for people crippled with rheumatism, Ferlic said.
“He was always looking for new and better ways to do things,” Ferlic said.
Clayton founded the Denver Orthopedic Clinic in 1952, published numerous articles in medical journals, was a clinical professor at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, created the Front Range Doctors’ Ski Patrol, was in the Colorado Ski Hall of Fame and was team physician for the Denver Broncos for three years. The CU medical school established an endowed chair in his name for orthopedics.
Clayton also made several trips to other countries, where he treated patients and gave instruction on orthopedic surgery. Working through the Volunteers in Mission program of the Presbyterian Church, he traveled to Ethiopia, Egypt and Thailand.
Mack L. Clayton was born in Round Mountain, Ala., on Nov. 24, 1921, and was reared in Tucson, where his family moved. He earned his medical degree at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, and interned in Boston.
He met Sally Lee in Tucson and they were married June 3, 1948. They moved to Denver in 1952.
In addition to his wife and daughter, he is survived by his son, Jim Clayton of Fort Collins, a granddaughter, two step-grandsons and his sister, Lora Byerly of Scottsdale, Ariz.
Staff writer Virginia Culver can be reached at 303-954-1223 or vculver@denverpost.com.
