Born in Connellsville and raised in Beltzhoover, Clyde attended South Hills High School and played baseball. He was best known as the lead singer of the big-band The Clyde Knight Orchestra, a popular dance band in the 1930s and early '40s that included more than a dozen members. They played popular ballads of the day as well as Fagan's original compositions, and played gigs near and far, from Denver's famed Rainbow Ballroom to the Kennywood Dance Pavilion and Pittsburgh's William Penn Hotel.
In fact, the band was the last to play at the Kennywood pavilion before it closed in the early '50s.
His wife Dorothy was a childhood sweetheart. After the group disbanded at the close of World War II, Clyde started a Pittsburgh investment company, Gateway Stock and Bond, which prospered.
He retired to Hollywood, Fla., although he continued to exercise his excellent salesmanship by selling real estate. "My father could sell a refrigerator to an Eskimo," his daughter told the Post-Gazette in 2003.
Clyde passed away on Aug. 19, 2003, his wife Dorothy having preceded him in death on March 13 of the same year.
The fund is one of four established in their memory and is designated to support Animal Friends.