Obituaries

Some considered him the father of recreation in Piedmont. Others knew him as a friend and no-nonsense neighbor.

The Clyde Pike Civic Center now stands as a memorial to him.

Funeral services for Clyde H. Pike, 86, are scheduled for 2 p.m. today at First United Methodist Church in Piedmont.

Pike died Tuesday at the Crestwood Medical Center in Huntsville due to complications from pneumonia, according to his son, Danny Pike.

The World War II veteran and long-time member of First United Methodist Church of Piedmont served as director of the recreation center for more than 30 years, family members said.

Even when the civic center, or the "Y" as many people called it, closed for a couple of years in the 1980s, when it reopened in 1988 under the city's stewardship "there was no question who was going to run it," said former city clerk Brent Morrison.

"Clyde was our daddy in the afternoon. He ruled the roost," Morrison recalled.

As a child, Morrison said, he remembers Pike as a stern man who didn't let any kids from out of town get in the way.

"He never put up with anything," he said.

But Pike also had a sweet spot for his son Danny, according to Piedmont resident Ken Grissom, who will be a pallbearer at the funeral.

When Pike sold RC Colas from behind the counter, he said, "there was a running joke that that was for Danny's college fund."

For his part, Grissom said, he looked to Pike as a "father-figure," someone you felt good being around whether swimming in the summer or roller skating in winter.

Grissom said one of his earliest memories is when he was around 7 years old and wrecked on his bicycle.

Pike, he said, took him into the bathroom and helped clean him up.

Despite being an only child, Danny Pike says he never felt uncomfortable with the idea that his father "raised a whole generation of kids in Piedmont."

"Even though they weren't rich, they gave me everything I needed and wanted," he said of his parents.

His son, Shane, remembers Pike as the grandfather who let him drive a car on country roads as a teenager when they were together in the car north of Piedmont.

"We stopped and he let me swap seats," he said, also fondly recalling the drawer of pocket knives his grandfather let him play with as a child.

Piedmont resident Bobby Tucker, 71, said he knew Pike his whole life as a "kind and gentle" neighbor.

"I never heard him say a harsh word in my life," he said.

"I wouldn't be surprised if 350 or 400 people showed up at his funeral."

Pike is survived by his wife of 67 years, Mary Elizabeth Payne Pike, three brothers, and two sisters, as well as his son Danny and two grandsons.