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Timeline: Lee Clow's 50 Years in Advertising

As TBWA's creative legend retires, he leaves a legacy unlike any other

black and white photo of Lee Clow sitting on a couch — Lee Clow joined Chiat/Day in 1973 as a young art director and remained with the agency more than 45 years.Courtesy of Lee Clow

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1943

Lee Clow is born in Los Angeles, where he would later attend Santa Monica City College and California State University at Long Beach.

1968

Jay Chiat and Guy Day form creative agency Chiat/Day in Los Angeles through the merger of Jay Chiat & Associates and Faust/Day. The agency had one office, 50 employees and $8 million in billings, according to The New York Times.

Clow, after a tour of duty in the Army, gets hired as an art director at the L.A.