Clark Timothy Madigan

Washington, DC - Born on July 28, 1939, in Rochester, NY, to Harold V. Madigan and Leah M. Clark, Clark Madigan was a loving husband and father and a successful businessman, especially as an entrepreneur in the telecommunications tower business. He was also an aficionado of sports and spending time outdoors. He died unexpectedly early in the morning of April 14, 2025.

In 1957, Clark graduated from Brighton High School in Rochester, where he was on the soccer team. He received a Bachelor's Degree in Economics from Colgate University in 1961, where he played soccer freshman year, was a member of Alpha Tau Omega and sang in the acapella group, The Colgate 13. (He remained connected to many Colgate friends through the camaraderie of the "Vintage" Colgate 13, which has gathered at least annually for several decades.) Clark pursued graduate studies relevant to his career at NYU's School of Business, Dartmouth College (Credit and Financial Management) and Rutgers University (Banking). He married Susan Sheridan shortly after graduation in August, 1961 (divorced 20 years later), with whom he had two daughters, Lisa Stephens Madigan-Carey and Leslie Madigan Keldsen.

After graduation, Clark began his career at the Irving Trust Company in New York City. In 1969, he returned to Rochester, joining Marine Midland Bank as a VP. In 1972, Manufacturers Hanover Trust brought him on board as Chairman of the Board of Ontario Bank (soon renamed Manufacturers Hanover of Central New York), which represented its entry into central NY. Within 4 years he had guided its growth from a single bank with 8 employees to 12 branches with about 80 employees. Clark always described it as "a great first experience running a small 'company' with the support of a major bank to back me up." Rather than accepting a subsequent invitation to coordinate the development of more regional banks in upstate NY, Clark briefly switched his focus to growing a small, privately-owned, independent bank in Lawrence, MA. Then, in 1979, he joined American Security Bank in Washington, DC, to focus on financing companies in the new wave of consolidation in radio and television broadcasting and the rapid expansion of cable TV (e.g., C-Span). From there, he moved to a consulting firm specializing in cable tv and the growing market for telecommunications, paging and cellular phones. During that transition period, he met Karen L. Davis, who became his 2nd wife. (They were married in Rome, Italy, on May 28, 1984. Late in December, 1988, they celebrated the birth of Clark's third daughter, Caithlin Tara Madigan.) By the late 1980s, Clark and his business associates had formed a small investment fund focused on telecom businesses, whose first investment was the purchase of a large telecommunications tower in Philadelphia. Almost immediately, Clark and his business partners connected the dots that the tower carried the infrastructure for all these related businesses and that the demand for towers would run parallel to their growth. Early in 1990, Clark co-founded and became President of TeleCom Towers, LLC, which eventually owned about 400 towers and managed roughly 2000 other antenna sites across the US. In 1999, they sold it to the American Tower Company. By the mid-2000s, the investment group was on its fourth tower company in which they expected to develop about 200 more towers. When Clark stepped back from responsibility for daily operations as CEO, he remained on the Board as a major investor and assisted with raising capital. He was a past Chairman of the Site Owners and Managers Division (SOMA) of the Personal Communications Industry Association (PCIA) and a frequent speaker at industry conferences on various aspects of financing and operating wireless communications properties. He was also a consultant to and served on the boards of several privately held companies, including Westburg Media Capital Corp.; Bay Communications, LLC; Shared Towers, LLC; Mariner Towers, LLC, and ForceNine Consulting, LLC, and a strategic advisor to several financial firms on the future of wireless communications and the tower industry. As one close colleague said, "Clark was a big deal in our industry. He will be remembered for a long time."

Clark was also engaged in the DC community. He served as a financial advisor to the Lt Joseph P. Kennedy Institute, for 7 years he was a board member and treasurer for Burgundy Farm Country Day School in Alexandria, and he was on the Capital Campaign Committee for the expansion of Georgetown Day High School. He was elected to the Board of what was then called the Cleveland Park Citizens Association, shortly after he and his second family moved from Capitol Hill to Cleveland Park. He was a long-time, generous donor, especially to BreakthroughT1D (formerly the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation) and Colgate University. In their spare time, he spent parts of every year with his family at the home he and Karen owned for 30 years in Bethany Beach, Delaware. International travel was another hobby. And, then there was the outdoors, where Clark, family and friends enjoyed sailing, golf, tennis, hiking and bike riding together.

Clark will be sorely missed by his wife, Karen; his 3 daughters, Lisa Carey-Madigan (Tony), Leslie Madigan Keldsen (Kyle) and Caithlin Tara Madigan; his 2 grandchildren (Hannah Keldsen and Erik Keldsen), his siblings (Judith Madigan Burgess and Michael Madigan), and his nieces and nephews (Amy and Tracy Madigan and Kevin, Timothy and Alexander Burgess). Clark has been cremated. Family plans to hold a Celebration of Life for Clark on the Saturday of Father's Day Weekend.