Obituary of Robert Eckley Clarke

ROBERT E. CLARKE, 78, AUTHOR/BIOGRAPHER OF MIT’S ELLEN SWALLOW RICHARDS, “FIRST WOMAN OF SCIENCE” Robert Eckley Clarke, 78, born March 11, 1931, author of the biography of Ellen Swallow Richards: The Woman Who Founded Ecology (Follett 1973), died February 13, 2010 from complications during heart surgery at Salem (Massachusetts) Hospital. A former resident of Chicago, he had been researching and documenting from sources unavailable to his 1973 work, a factually comprehensive account of America’s first environmental scientist and educator, Ellen Swallow Richards, first MIT female undergraduate and graduate student and faculty member. His revised book manuscript was being vetted at the time of his death. His 1973 biography of Richards won the Ambassador Book Award of the English Speaking Union and has been translated into more than a dozen languages. Mr. Clarke led a multi-faceted life having served as press secretary and director of communication to Alaska Governor Jay Hammond, designer of that state’s Permanent Fund, interest from which annually pays for much of that state’s budget as well as stipends to every man, woman and child living in Alaska. It was Mr. Clarke who, together with Governor Hammond, was instrumental in also establishing an eagle program whereby each of the other 49 states were given pairs of Alaskan eagles to replenish the eagle population throughout the U.S. Mr. Clarke also served as counsel to Illinois Governor Otto Kerner with whom he established the Lincoln Academy of Illinois (1965). He also founded and served as chairman of the non-profit environmental monitor and think-tank, Institute for Euthenics (1964-74) and played a role in founding the Illinois Sports Council. At a 1967 Conference on Mass Information and the Environment at the University of Illinois, Mr. Clarke defined the emerging density of information as a “Third Environment,” predicting an interactive entity described as a “world bank of knowledge,” known now at the internet. His May, 2006 paper, Waters & Waterways, for a Massachusetts Historical Society Conference, Remaking Boston:…Environmental Change Over the Centuries, provoked heated comment and praise from educators and historians. From l979-82, while in service to Governor Jay Hammond, he established Alaska’s first daily satellite news coverage of state affairs from the nation’s capitol. In 1979, when Hammond was the first American governor invited to visit the Peoples Republic of China, Clarke provided satellite coverage of the visit to North America. In l983he worked with Paul Emile Victor to extend United Nations’ protection of Antarctica for scientific research (SCAR). From l983 to l986 he edited and published the Alaska Public Affairs Quarterly; from l986 – l991 he counseled Alaska’s state legislature on communications, resource and revenue issues. He wrote and produced prime time public affairs television programming including the l982 national Emmy award-winning Story at the Top of the World, with Hal Holbrook, and Report from Valdez, on the 1989 Exxon-Valdez oil spill. His work depicting Eskimo culture on Little Diomede Island, off the coast of the then-Soviet Union, was featured on CBS-TV’s GOOD MORNING. As radio/tv director for The Philip Lesly Company in New York in the late 1950’s, Mr. Clarke counseled client Bell & Howell on sponsoring the nation’s first regularly scheduled prime time documentary series, CBS-TV REPORTS. Subsequently, he counseled governmental agencies in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and numerous national and global entities. Born in Altoona, Pennsylvania he entered Penn State University following his honorable discharge from the USAF where he served as chief historian of the 802nd Air Division (1953). He transferred to Boston University which he graduated with a bachelor of science in communication. He later took graduate studies at Northwestern University. Married to the former Linda Jones (deceased) he is survived by twin sons, Christopher and Montgomery, and a daughter, Rachael, all of whom live in the Portland, Oregon area; a sister, Brigit Clarke-Smith of Carlsbad, California, a brother, Terence, of Hingham, Massachusetts, a sister Melinda Clarke-Kelley, of Hawaii, two grandchildren, his fiancé, Louise Thompson of Peabody, and several nephews and nieces. Inurnment services are planned for April 11th at the family plot in Altoona.