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Today's Featured Biography

Ed Clarke

O, those good old high school days when we were so young! Back then I did not understand, "Youth is wasted on the Young".

My family moved to Chicago before Christmas of my freshman year at Harvard so I never got back to Berwyn, PA. I wish I had made the effort to keep in touch with Conestoga but I didn't know then how much I would value and miss those high school relationships.
After earning an engineering degree, I did not know what I wanted to do. I had a ROTC commission in the US Army Signal Corps but was not eager to go on active duty. Instead, I went to Stanford and earned an MS in Operations Research in nine months and then worked for Andersen Consulting in Chicago for the summer before going on active duty in the fall. I was stationed at Fort Monmouth, NJ for 10 months before spending a year in Vietnam.

Upon returning, I worked as an information systems consultant for Andersen. I was single and living in the city so I took the opportunity to earn my CPA and then MBA at the University of Chicago, both at night. I went on to a career in accounting and finance, eventually working as Chief Financial Officer for three, high-tech, privately-held companies in southeast Michigan. I was in Chicago when I married for the first time at age 32. That lasted 9 years, no children. I then moved to Ann Arbor and married in a few years. That marriage lasted 15 years. I have a son, Eddy, who is now 20. He could not see the value in all the make-work assignments in college and is working at a restaurant in town while living with me and figuring out his next move. I am currently consulting with early-stage companies to help them raise capital and grow. For the past six years I have been seeing a wonderful woman, Merta Trumble, who lives only 7 miles away. She will be joining us at Reunion!

I look forward to getting back to Conestoga. I wonder how much it has changed. Compared to the high schools of people I have met since, Conestoga was very advanced. I hardly ever talk to someone my age that went to an integrated high school. Conestoga had soccer and was adding gymnastics long before schools in other parts of the country. We had three foreign languages to choose from, plus Latin and Russian. Women were in all the advanced classes, in many leadership positions, and could choose from five varsity sports, plus cheerleading. Has a pool been added to the school? What happened to the football fields and to the tennis courts where I spent so much of my time?

I would love to hear from classmates and hope to see you at Reunion and to keep in touch for many years thereafter.

All the best,
Ed Clarke
2163 Greenview Drive
Ann Arbor, MI 48103
734-747-6987
[email protected]

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