ALLENTOWN, Pa. — A city park soon will bear the name of a late barber whose “impact in this community cannot be measured,” according to one councilwoman.
Council Vice President Cynthia Mota paid tribute to Clyde Bosket as the body unanimously voted Wednesday to rename Valania Park after him.
Bosket was “such a pillar in our community” — one who “leaves behind a legacy of love and entrepreneurship,” Mota said.
“He was always showing us what it means to be the change you want to see."Cynthia Mota, Allentown City Council
“He was always showing us what it means to be the change you want to see,” she said.
Bosket — known to many as Mr. Clyde — moved to Allentown in 1956 after serving two years in the U.S. Army during the Korean War and becoming a certified barber, according to his obituary.
He opened his first barber shop at 215 S. 5th St., about a block from where his now-namesake park sits.
Bosket also served migrant workers, according to Pastor Benjamin T. Haley of Allentown’s Union Baptist Church.
“He would go out into the field and cut hair on the back of a truck to make sure that people were able to have a decent look about themselves and be able to conduct themselves with some self-esteem and dignity,” Hailey said.
And, as the first master barber in the Lehigh Valley, Bosket “trained most of the barbers of African descent from Easton all the way to Allentown” at five shops across the region, Hailey said.
Bosket died Oct. 19, 2023. He was 94.
‘A major coup’
Hailey called the park’s renaming for Bosket “a major coup in terms of representing the African-American community that grew up” in the area a few blocks southeast of Center City Allentown.
Valania Park was built near Union and North Sixth streets in 1976. It fell into disrepair before the Rev. Dan Blount led a 12-year effort to revive the park.
The park reopened in May 2023 after a $1.8 million renovation expansion project
Blount said his feelings were indescribable Wednesday night after council unanimously approved the park’s renaming to honor Bosket.
Several dozen people were at council’s meeting to support the measure; they represented just a small percentage of those whose lives Bosket impacted, according to Blount.
He said he paid for his first bicycle by shining shoes and sweeping floors for Bosket, who used it as an opportunity to teach the value of saving money.
“I got the bicycle, and I’ve loved him forever,” Blount said.
Powerful 'ripple effects'
As a Black man born in South Carolina in 1929, Bosket faced numerous “adversities that he had to overcome just to make it — yet alone to provide opportunities to others,” Councilwoman Ce-Ce Gerlach said.
He broke through discrimination to run a successful business in Allentown and created countless “ripple effects” that “allowed us to even be here where we're at,” Gerlach said.
Many in council’s chambers Wednesday night “owe him for the ability to even be in this room one way or another,” she said.
He “continues to live with us every day. Although you might not have gotten to meet him very often, you are absolutely living in Clyde Bosket’s Allentown.”Mayor Matt Tuerk
Mayor Matt Tuerk said he was “intrigued” by Bosket’s journey from South Carolina to Allentown; the mayor made the same move about 20 years ago.
Bosket is “deeply connected” to Allentown’s history, and his “fundamental kindness and decency” carries on in the many people who knew and admired him, Tuerk said.
He “continues to live with us every day,” the mayor said. “Although you might not have gotten to meet him very often, you are absolutely living in Clyde Bosket’s Allentown.”
Bosket’s family and friends are set to join city officials at noon Thursday at the park to officially dedicate the park in his name.
The sign was at council’s meeting Wednesday night, ready to be hung well before the official approval.
Valania Park was named in tribute to former Allentown principal John Valania, who died at 43.
