Comments:
Bob was always good for a laugh, and the laugh was always a good laugh. Sometimes he ould get it without saying a word, as when he a male visitors to the female theatrical boarding house in the senior play—enter Bob wearing a Bermuda short suit with knee socks and carrying the kitten. The flip side of his kind of humor is human warmth. An essential quality of a “best dancer” is being able to read another human being. Both contribute to being a good teacher and counselor, the leading roles Bob has played since leaving college.
In 1957 he had his choice of Georgetown, Colgate, and St. Lawrence. “I didn’t want to follow brother’s footsteps [to Colgate], and Georgetown seemed very oppressive,” so he chose St. Lawrence “at the end of the world, where the temperature goes down to about -40 below zero.” But this was the same Bob Clarke who didn’t hesitate when track coach Don Thompson said. “You know Rob we have to have someone in the hurdles and you gotta run the hurdles.” He said he didn’t know how to jump, but he ran and he won.
When he left college he was engaged to his future wife Oonah whom he had met when fellow lifeguard Pete Marnane (’55) introduced them. Once engaged, “I needed to get a real job.” He took a job near Syracuse teaching social studies and Married Una in June. Bob was then in the career his grandfather had followed and his mother had tried and rejected and his sister would follow for life. Bob’s father ran a printing business. After a year upstate Bob and Una moved to West Hampton where he continued to teach social studies for five years. He found teaching to be a “tough business. I was half way through a lesson one day and I thought, another 25 yrs of this?” Soon he went into guidance in the same district. “I enjoyed that immensely. The interesting thing about counseling is that it is very multi-tasking.” Unlike teaching or a being a psychologist who deals all day with troubles, “it’s really kind of joyous helping kids to get to their goals.” Bob became District Direct of Guidance.
He and Oonah had four children and they soon found themselves with three in college at one time. Bob says he had loved shop in junior high, and his father-in-law was a wonderful carpenter who helped him develop his woodworking techniques. “When the children were in college I started a carpentry business, just myself. I’d be up till 11 o’clock at night making coffee tables, headboards, mantel pieces.”
Bob decide to take early retirement in 1995 and soon found himself again with hurdles he didn’t know how to jump. He got a real estate license but found success depended on getting people he knew to help him find listings. “I have a real aversion to being beholden to people for helping.” He and Una were also getting divorced, and he found himself in the hardest year of his life, living in a rented place, having nothing to do. “I was amazed I never got depressed. Part of our ego gets tied up in our work, especially for men, and I’ve known a number of people who retired and ended up having to go to shrinks.”
Bob and Oonah divorced, and she died suddenly at 57 when an infection in her foot went into bloodstream and killed her as she was dressing to go out with friends. Bob decided he should go back to work. A friend in Florida spotted an ad for a counselor in a private school and Bob moved to Florida and worked for another five years before he was finally ready to leave education. He stays very busy with carpentry, remodeling, children and grandchildren. His grandson Danny recently did several pictures of “grandfathers” Rob and his partner. “Happy situation for me and very fulfilling.” Bob and his partner run a small real estate business “which keeps us busy and off the streets.”
