Arts & Entertainment

Tranquility at the beach

Burned out on the Big Apple, gay couple relocates to run Delaware B&B

Published

14 years ago

August 23, 2012

Michael Key

The Towers Bed & Breakfast
mispillion.com
302-422-3814
101 NW Front St.
Milford, DE 19963

David Rule and Christopher Clawson at the Towers. (Blade photo by Michael Key)

Many people think about leaving behind the chaos of the city to find a quieter life near the beach, but few follow through with that dream for more than a weekend. Gay couple Christopher Clawson and David Rule left their busy lives in New York City to start over in the sleepy Delaware town of Milford, working as innkeepers at the Towers Bed & Breakfast.

Clawson and Rule met in their native Michigan but moved to New York together. Clawson worked at a church while Rule had a career in commercial marketing. They both acclimated to city life.

“I loved living in the city,” Rule says, “but I needed a change.”

Clawson agrees.

“We really wanted to slow down after having lived in the city. My commute to work was technically only a few miles, but it would take forever to get there. I couldn’t stand the constant typing on phones and texting. We would get home at 7 p.m. after work and would be too tired to do anything — and it would be too late to do anything anyway.”

A few clicks later on Craigslist, Clawson and Rule found Dan and Rhonda Bond, the overworked owners of the Towers Bed & Breakfast. The Bonds were looking for more hands to manage their inn as they concentrated on their other businesses and the renovation of their own home. Following an interview, the Bonds knew they had found what they were looking for in Clawson and Rule. The city couple packed their bags and moved to Milford to start their new lives as innkeepers.

“It takes a certain type of temperament to manage a B&B,” Dan Bond says. “Chris and David are a perfect fit for this kind of work.”

Indeed, Clawson and Rule seem to have been fully accepted into the community since they relocated in April. Rule, finally able to commit more time to his painting, is showing some of his work at a local art gallery two blocks away from the Towers. As his neighbors browse his work, Rule says, “Everyone here is so nice. The people of Milford have really embraced us.”

“We’re kind of the token gay couple here,” Clawson says.

The couple plans to buy the LadyBug Store across the street from the Towers in January, further cementing their place in the local community. They’re even thinking about buying a bed and breakfast of their own one day.

“I’m loving working here now, but when we were first thinking of getting into the business, we wanted to make sure that it was something that we could do, so it is a good thing to start out as innkeepers,” Clawson says.

“I figured, we could always move back to the city if it didn’t work out, but I love being so close to the beach,” Rule says.

Milford is a small town filled with historic buildings and quaint shops and is only a 40-minute drive from Rehoboth Beach. While Milford’s downtown can be explored in one lazy afternoon, the Towers Bed & Breakfast is a great place for travelers to avoid the crowds at the hotels along the boardwalk and find a more intimate and elegant place to stay. Originally built in the late 18th century, the home was once owned by a governor of Delaware and is now open to guests nearly year round.

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FUND LGBTQ JOURNALISM

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Television loses a legend, longtime ‘Will & Grace’ director James Burrows

Iconic hitmaker leaves behind a legacy of telling LGBTQ stories

Published

17 hours ago

June 23, 2026

Christian Cintron

James Burrows (Photo by kathclick/Bigstock)

You don’t have to be a pretentious film major to name 10 movie directors. But naming television directors is not that simple. They’re the unsung heroes of your favorite shows, and the late James Burrows was the television director. He passed on June 19, but his DNA runs through television history.

He directed over 1200 episodes of television and over 50 pilots. He co-created “Cheers” and directed many episodes of long-running series like “Friends,” “Taxi,” “Frasier,” “The Big Bang Theory,” and “Two and a Half Men.” You also may remember him from playing a heightened version of himself on the Lisa Kudrow comedy “The Comeback.”

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A post shared by James Burrows (@therealjamesburrows)

He has left an indelible mark on the LGBTQ community. As recently as last year, he directed the series run of “Mid-Century Modern” starring Nathan Lane, Matt Bomer, and Linda Lavin. He was also a longtime director of “Will & Grace” and directed every episode of the series revival. He even directed the unaired “Absolutely Fabulous” pilot with Kathryn Hahn, Kristen Johnston, and Zosia Mamet.

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Not to mention he’s worked with queer icons throughout history, including Betty White and Stockard Channing on their single-season series, and Jennifer Coolidge in “2 Broke Girls.”

He started his career on shows like “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” “Rhoda,” “Laverne & Shirley,” and the first four seasons of “Taxi.”

He continued to work steadily and directed successful pilots that went to series for “Roc,” “3rd Rock From the Sun,” “Dharma & Greg,” and “Wings.” He directed multiple episodes of “Friends,” “Caroline in the City,” and “Frasier.”

This magic continued into the 2000s with him directing the pilots for “Two and a Half Men,” “The Big Bang Theory,” and multiple episodes of “Mike & Molly,” and the entire return series of “Will & Grace.”

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A post shared by James Burrows (@therealjamesburrows)

What was the secret to his success? He’d enact the “fun clause” in his contract. In his words, “Life is too short to deal with obnoxious leads,” he shared. “So as long as the writing is good and the cast is fun, I’m going to enjoy the experience.”

He had the magic touch, having multiple pilots turned into long-running series. He was nominated for an Emmy 24 times in 26 years and worked consistently until a year before his death.

The secret was the way he brought the cast together. He describes, “it was my job to mold them into an ensemble, and they did round into a group of people who loved each other.”

This earned him 11 Emmy Awards and five Directors Guild of America Awards, including being awarded the inaugural DGA’s Lifetime Achievement Award for Television Direction.

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In a 2003 interview by the Television Academy, he was asked how he wants to be remembered, and he said, “That every night forever you can tune in somewhere, and there’ll be a show I did.”

He’s survived by his wife, Debbie, four daughters, seven grandchildren, and the countless people whose careers he launched and the countless viewers he inspired with his television legacy.