John Michael Clarke

J. Michael Clarke

John Michael Clarke, of Plainfield, CT died on Thursday, October 9th, 2025 at Colonial Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center in Plainfield, CT at the age of 78 after a second battle with cancer.

He was born in Adams, MA on May 9, 1947 to James and Victoria (Szetela) Clarke, two prominent Adams citizens, as the last of five children.

James was the Adams postmaster, Victoria an executive secretary at the town's savings bank. His siblings were somewhat older, Ann by 15 years, Carole by 13, James Jr. by 11 and Eileen by 9. They all became highly successful in the Boston area because of the emphasis put on education and hard work by their loving and beloved parents, and they served as Michael's own role models.

After attending Adams Memorial High School, he went to Boston College, from which he graduated Magna Cum Laude in the classical languages Greek and Latin in 1969. After further studies at The Ohio State University and Boston College, at both of which he gained university teaching experience, he was admitted to Harvard University with full tuition and stipend scholarships. He taught Ancient Greek to Harvard undergraduates as a Teaching Fellow. He was also course assistant in Roman History, and was discussion section leader in several Greek Literature in Translation courses, charged with responsibility for the evaluation and grading of Harvard students and the writing of their recommendations. Michael also studied German and French at Harvard, and he lived in Germany the summer of 1975, the year in which he also received his Harvard MA. His marriage in that year to Teresa Slabicki in Chluchow, Poland would end in divorce. Upon leaving Harvard, he worked at various jobs, including as a direct care provider to adults with severe intellectual disabilities, telemarketer in Las Vegas, and award-winning Encyclopaedia Britannica salesman. After leaving Vegas, he moved to Portsmouth NH and began his HS teaching career at Portsmouth HS. After four years there and a summer in Greece on archaeological tours, Michael came to Plainfield HS in 1986, where he taught Latin, German, and French until his retirement in 2007. He conducted numerous student trips to Europe while a teacher. In his retirement he avidly pursued his beloved language and history studies as an independent scholar. He was known as a loyal friend and a supporter of Plainfield town and school budgets and of Plainfield HS music and musicals. He did much work before and after retirement at the intersection of politics and education. He also fought lengthy battles, ultimately unsuccessful, against the introduction of large warehouses into Plainfield residential neighborhoods.

Michael leaves his two surviving siblings James Jr. and Eileen, and five nephews and two nieces. He was grateful to his fellow worshipers at the Central Assembly of God in Wauregan for their prayers and assistance, as well as to the superb staffs and physicians at Backus Hospital and E.C.H.O. for saving his life from Stage 3 prostate cancer in 2007, and for their inestimable assistance in this final campaign. Michael had no children. He made substantial bequests to the Backus Hospital Radiotherapy Center and to the American School of Classical Studies in Athens. His remains are interred with his parents in St. Mary's Cemetery in Foxboro MA, to which they relocated in 1973. There is no memorial service.