If you ever had the good fortune to be in the same room with Pete Clary, be that a courtroom or a barroom, odds are good you might have heard him before you saw him.
Not that Clary, the first chief public defender for Forsyth County, was overly loud. He wasnât. Rather, it was because he was passionate in his beliefs and heâd express them in no uncertain terms - no matter who was listening.
âMy most vivid memory of Pete isnât of him as a public defender,â said Tom Keith, the longtime district attorney and familiar foil. âIt s him holding court down there at First Street Draught House after 5 oâclock on a Thursday or a Friday. It was never the same without him down there.â