Maumus Francois "Timau" Claverie Jr.

1935 - 2018

Born in New Orleans, January 16, 1935, eldest son of Maumus Francois and Dorothea Lyons Claverie and grandson of Albert and Berthe Maumus Claverie, and Irving Luria and Elsa von Meysenbug Lyons, died at home, surrounded by family and loved ones, on February 14, 2018. He was educated at Isidore Newman After receiving both a Business and Law Degree from Tulane, and a posting to The Hague for further study, Timau joined the Army Engineer Corps as a 2nd Lieutenant. He rose to the rank of Captain in the Judge Advocate General Corps at Fort Belvoir, outside Washington DC, where he met and married Jill Collings. A master marksman, Timau's extraordinary shooting ability was legendary in the dove field and duck pond. While in the Army, he often competed with Marines and earned his Commanding Officer rights to brag that ""my Army lawyers can shoot better than your Marines"". Timau was an accomplished auto rally racer. When NASA had trouble keeping time on space capsules, they came to Captain Claverie, as he had already solved the problem for the race computer he designed. Returning to New Orleans with their son, Maumus F. Claverie III, he worked at several legal firms, eventually establishing his own practice. An avid and widely respected fisherman, Timau perfected the art of thinking like a fish. He set a number of world records for various species and was a valued member of the New Orleans Big Game Fishing Club. He could also be found, any given weekend, zipping around the marshes of Louisiana in his flats skiff chasing redfish and trout. Asked what he considered his most significant accomplishment, the normally modest Timau cited his term as Ad Hoc Judge of the New Orleans Traffic Court, during which time he mandated that the New Orleans Police Department enforce the posted speed limits on the then-single Greater New Orleans Mississippi River bridge, almost instantly lowering the annual death rate on the bridge from 40 to 4. Countless others would cite his tireless work on preserving fish populations. His six decades of pioneering efforts led the way for groups like the Coastal Conservation Association, the Billfish Foundation, and many others. To further the science of fisheries conservation, he established a fin-fish tagging program that generated invaluable data about the previously unknown migration and spawning habits of redfish and speckled trout, and ultimately the passage of sweeping legislation on both the State and Federal levels, establishing controls on commercial harvesting of all game fish. No one knows just how many tagging sticks Timau hand-made in his back-yard shop or how many phone calls he personally answered from fishermen reporting both the tagging and the recapture of tagged fish, but the data he gathered became a model for all programs since. In later years, Timau returned to an earlier interest, becoming an avid fly-fisherman. Joining the New Orleans Fly Fishers Club, he very typically became something of a fly-tying guru, and tied flies until the day before his death. In addition to his son, Maumus III, and daughter-in-law, Townsend Jordan Claverie, Timau is survived by two grandsons, Maumus F. Claverie IV, and Banner Ingersoll Claverie, a brother, Peter Q. Claverie, and a sister, Elsa D. Claverie, two ex-wives, Jill Collings McFarland and Priscilla Jordan, and many lifelong friends. Please rejoice with the family, that Timau is now hunting and fishing with Dadd and Uncle Bill. A memorial service will be held at Trinity Episcopal Church New Orleans on Thursday, February 22nd. Visitation at 10:30, service at 11:30, reception to follow.