Milton E. Clarke

Milton E. Clarke

Milton E. Clarke was born in Buffalo, N.Y. on Feb 19, 1925, to Milton and Grace Clarke. Milton Jr. graduated from Lake Zurich, Illinois High School and went to Monmouth College in southern Illinois. During WWII he served in the Navy. After the war, he finished school at UCLA in Los Angeles where he married Joyce Roberts and had two children, James and Christopher.

Milton moved his family to Portland, Ore., in the early '50s, where he went to work for Reynolds Metals. He resided there and raised his children until 1968 when he went to work for Reynolds International. Working with that company, he and Joyce traveled and worked in Scotland and Venezuela until his retirement in 1982. In retirement, he and Joyce lived in Gleneden Beach, Ore., where they had built a home.

Milton was married to Joyce for 42 years until her passing in 1989. He later remarried and divorced. He moved to southern Oregon in 2002 to be near family and he met his loving companion, Jean Hawley, with whom he spent the last five years of his life.

Milton was an avid golfer and loved to play bridge. He loved music and had memorized a huge catalog of songs that he often would sing. He was a member of the First United Methodist Church of Medford, OR.

He is survived by his son, Christopher and his wife, Elizabeth; and grandchildren, Charles, Patrick, and Andrew, of Rancho Cordova, Calif. His son James passed away in 1977. Other surviving family members are sister, Bette Kinsella and her children, Jeff, Nicki, and Wendy, and sister, Teri Herrick and her children, David, Vickie, and John.

A family memorial is planned for the summer of 2009. Internment was at Portland Memorial Mausoleum with wife, Joyce and son, James. His life had a great impact on many people. He will be missed.