HARTFORD, Conn. -- E. Clayton Gengras, a self-made millionaire, philanthropist and one-time gubernatorial candidate died Saturday after a sudden illness, his family said Monday. He was 74.
Gengras made an unsuccessful run for governor in 1966 with the backing of then state Republican Chairman A. Searle Pinney.
The son of a West Hartford dentist, Gengras dropped out of high school when he was 15 to sell Stutz Bearcats and became one of the largest car dealers in the nation with dealerships in New England and New York.
He was chairman and president of Security Insurance Corp. when it was bought by Textron, Inc. in 1973 and became the largest single shareholder in Textron. Gengras also bought and sold the Connecticut Transit bus lines in Hartford, New Haven, and Stamford, and the railroad station in downtown Hartford.
Gengras, a recovered alcoholic who stopped drinking 25 years ago, prided himself on his independent nature.
'I paddle my own canoe,' he said once. 'I have never inherited anything. I have worked like hell.'
Gengras was proud of his possessions -- a winter home in Florida, a summer home in the Fenwick section in Old Saybrook where actress Katherine Hepburn lives, and the family home on Prospect Avenue in West Hartford.
His best-known property, the 125-foot yacht 'Claybeth,' was sold to Forbes magazine owner Malcolm Forbes after it was regularly made available to politicians of both parties and to political reporters.
Although Gengras was a Republican, he contributed to Democrats and Republicans and became a close friend of the late Gov. Ella Grasso.
He is survived by his wife, Elizabeth Hutchins-Gengras of West Hartford, four daughters, seven sons, 24 grandchildren and one great-grandchild.
Services will be Tuesday at 10 a.m. EDT at the Molloy Funeral Home with a mass of Christian burial one hour later at the Cathedral of St. Joseph in Hartford. Burial will be at St. Benedict's Cemetery in Bloomfield.
