William Spurgeon Clarke Jr.

Colonel Clarke, who was known as “Bill,” was a distinguished veteran who flew 110 combat missions, including 100 over Vietnam.

He was also a proud Wake Forest graduate who planned his fall Saturdays around Deacons’ football games. While he may have bled black and old gold, Bill was true blue in every way.

He never missed a birthday, anniversary or holiday, however small, marking each with a card, phone call and often a song. He also never missed a performance of his children’s plays and choral concerts, chronicling each one with his camera.

Though he encouraged his children to pursue professions that guaranteed job security, he wholeheartedly championed his son’s career as a set designer and his daughter’s in journalism, proclaiming their every theatrical production and newspaper story a masterpiece.

In retirement, Bill explored parts of the world he hadn’t visited during his three-decade Air Force career, including Zambia and Zimbabwe, the Northwest Territories north of the Arctic Circle, Turkey, Russia and the Balkans. Shortly after his 91st birthday in 2019, he traveled with his son and daughter to Paris and Normandy.

On the eve of his 93rd birthday, he took enormous pride in getting his North Carolina driver’s license renewed for five more years. “If I can’t drive, I don’t want to live,” he said, only half-jesting.

To Bill, driving meant freedom--albeit on the roads rather than in the sky. It meant the freedom to explore and the chance to meet new people and discover new things about the world.

Even after living in the Triangle for four decades, Bill considered it not yet fully explored and delighted in discovering new restaurants, alternate driving routes to familiar destinations, a grand old tree in resplendent fall colors.

William S. Clarke Jr. was born in Severn, N.C., on May 5, 1928, the youngest of three children and only son of William S. and Louise Emerson Clarke.

As a child, he learned to drive a tractor and loved to read adventure stories and make paper airplanes.

After graduating from Wake Forest University in 1949 with a degree in English, he enlisted in the U.S. Air Force during the Korean War in 1950.

Despite being under-weight to qualify for pilot training in his early 20s, he finally persuaded a commanding officer to overlook it. He went on to log 3,970 hours as a jet fighter pilot, primarily in F-86 Sabre Jets, F-102 Delta Daggers, and an unarmed RF-4C Phantom II tactical reconnaissance fighter.

In 1967 he flew 100 combat missions over North Vietnam and 10 over Laos and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross three times and the Air Medal 10 times.

Following his combat tour, he was sent to Air Force headquarters at the Pentagon as an operations analyst and edited a classified magazine whose circulation include the White House. He then moved into Public Affairs, serving as chief public spokesperson for Air Force Research and Development and, later, Chief of Plans and Programs for the Assistant Secretary of Defense. He concluded his military service as the Air Force’s Assistant Director of Public Affairs, then relocated to Raleigh in 1980.

There, he directed the national headquarters of the U.S. Power Squadrons for 10 years before a second retirement.

He also joined First Baptist Church, the Raleigh Sports Club and the Rex Wellness Center, where he met friends he treasured until death.

In 2000, he wrote a book based on his flying exploits, In Search of Daedalus: Recollections of a Fighter Pilot, that brought to vivid life the high-risk profession and tight bonds among a squadron of fellow pilots.

Following a 1985 divorce from his wife, Martha L. Stephenson, who preceded him in death, he met Kitty Fehr, who renewed his zest for life and became a loving companion of 31 years until her death in 2019.

Bill was a firm believer in lifelong learning. As resident of Glenaire Retirement Community in Cary, he joined the foreign-policy study group, quiz-bowl team, and finance committee. He also discovered his gift for theater, playing 10-year-old Winthrop Paroo in Glenaire Players’ production of The Music Man and following with star turns in The Nutcracker and South Pacific.

He marveled at his Glenaire neighbors’ kindness and range of achievement and expertise while maintaining his active social calendar and many friendships in Raleigh.

In the final days of his life, as he recounted cherished memories and reviewed his wishes for his children, he spoke only words of love and gratitude—for them, for his wonderful friends, and for the privilege of having led such a long and interesting life.

“There are good people everywhere,” he said.

He is survived by a son, William S. Clarke III of New York, N.Y.; daughter, Elizabeth S. Clarke of Washington, D.C.; son-in-law, Douglas J. Martin of New York, N.Y.; and sister-in law, Edith S. Simpson of Raleigh.

A celebration of Bill’s life will be held at Raleigh’s First Baptist Church on Monday, Sept. 12, at 2 p.m. An interment at Oakwood Cemetery will precede the service.

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to First Baptist Church, 99 N. Salisbury Street, Raleigh NC 27603.

Services provided by Brown-Wynne, 300 Saint Mary's St., Raleigh.