Jeffrey D. Clark, 65
BATH – Jeffrey D. Clark – The advantage of knowing when you’re going to die is that you get to write your own obituary. For a journalist, that’s the gold standard.
I, Jeffrey Davies Clark, was born on Feb. 8, 1950, in Belfast, to Leroy H. “Pete” Clark, of Belfast, and Edith Mae “Di” Clark, née Davies, formerly of Liverpool, England. I was the oldest of six children. After a childhood on the family farm in Swanville and a side trip to Colorado, we moved to Belfast in 1962, where I graduated from Belfast Area High School in 1968.
After three years at the University of Maine at Orono, the realization dawned that I was about to graduate with an English degree, possibly the most useless piece of paper in academia. Taking a semester off to think things over seemed a good idea to me, but not to my draft board, so in May of 1972 I enlisted in the U.S. Air Force. I was stationed at Offutt AFB outside Omaha, Neb., where I literally found the rest of my life. I became a reporter and then editor for the Air Pulse, the weekly newspaper serving the Offutt community. And in a cornfield in Cass County I found the woman I would very happily spend the rest of my life with, Patricia Morris. She has been my rock and my light and my love.
Pat and I were married on June 21, 1975, in Plattsmouth, Neb. In 1979, we returned to Maine, where I continued as a reporter and editor, first on Sam Pennington’s Waldoboro Weekly, then at Peter Cox’s Maine Times, and finally on Down East magazine, where Dale Kuhnert gave me the job of a lifetime chronicling the people and places of this astonishing state. In 1983, Pat and I welcomed our daughter, Jocelyn “Josie,” and in 1986, our second daughter, Erin, arrived. Two more wonderful daughters simply do not exist in this world, and I apologize to both of them for leaving too early.
For five years, I served on the board of Maine Rivers, an organization devoted to protecting Maine’s freshwater rivers and streams.
I passed away on Aug. 4, 2015, from complications related to esophageal cancer. Visiting Hours will be on Friday, Aug. 7, from 4-6 p.m. at Desmond Funeral Home, 638 High St., Bath, and a Mass of Christian Burial will be held on Saturday, Aug. 8, at 9 a.m., at St. Mary’s Catholic Church, Bath, with interment following.
Survivors, besides Patricia and Josie of Bath and Erin and her husband, Steve Zaremba, and their daughter, Emma Lillie, expected to join us Oct. 1, of Salem, N.H.; include my five amazing siblings and their families: Kym Sanderson (Bill) of Belfast, and son Brian; Joyce Clark Sarnacki of Hampden, and daughters Jillian and Aislinn; Kris Clark (Kathy) of Brewer, and daughters Allyson and Bekah; Keith Clark (Nancy) of Belfast, and children Adam, Megan and Sara; and Kerry Clark Jordan (Bruce) of Veazie, and children Eve and Eben; and our honorary sister, Carole Hall of New Haven, Vt., and her children, as well as our honorary daughters, Ashley Pesek (Nick) of Sedgwick, and her family and Christina Pickett (Ed), and her children.
I also leave behind my lifelong and much-valued friends, J. Andrew and Irene McMahan of Sidney; and many cousins in the United States and England. A special thanks to the doctors and nurses at New England Cancer Specialists in Brunswick, including Dr. David Benton and Nurse Practitioner Theresa Sirois, as well as Dr. Sean McCloy at Integrative Health Services of Maine in Portland.
It’s been a trip, folks. Thank you to all the family and friends and complete strangers who have made this life so interesting. Now, on to the next one! Until the circle is unbroken.
– 30 –
In lieu of flowers, please
consider a donation to
Maine Rivers
P.O. Box 782
Yarmouth, Maine 04096
or
Brunswick Area Respite Care
41 Greenwood Road
Brunswick, Maine 04011
in memory of my late
mother-in-law, Lillie – See more at: http://obituaries.pressherald.com/obituaries/mainetoday-pressherald/obituary.aspx?n=jeffrey-d-clark&pid=175445030&#sthash.wKtpgihO.dpuf
