Robert Wayne Clarke

Robert Wayne Clarke passed away peacefully in his home on Sunday, the 1st of July 2018, at the age of 84. Robert was born on the 14th of April 1934, in Rome, New York, to Patricia Ann and Wesley Ray Clarke.

Robert was an Associate Professor of Accounting, he has taught taxation and accounting at the University of Michigan, University of North Carolina, University of Houston, University of Illinois, and Syracuse University, and Rice University.

He has also taught tax training programs and served as a consultant on taxation for several national public accounting firms. Robert has also been an expert witness on taxation and accounting for the federal government.

During his Ph. D. program at the University of Illinois, Robert was both an American Accounting Association Doctoral Fellow and an Arthur Andersen & Co. Doctoral Fellow. While teaching there, he was named Outstanding Teacher of the Year.

Robert's articles have appeared in many professional journals and include “Incorrectly Determining Property’s Basis Can Cause Unnecessary Tax Liability,” Taxation (coauthor); “Attestation of Federal Income Tax Returns, “Tax Advisor”; “Verification of Management Representation,” Accounting Review; and “Extensions of the CPA’s Attest Function in Corporate Annual Reports,” Accounting Review. He is also an author of the section on financial statement analysis in Accountants’ Handbook and the coauthor of Federal Taxation I and II.

He received a B.S. degree from Syracuse University in 1961, M.B.A. degree, from Syracuse University in 1962, and a Ph. D. degree, from the University of Illinois in 1967.

Robert had energy for days and loved to walk in Memorial Park every Saturday and Sunday religiously, but not without his faithful Starbucks in hand. He loved his coffee and went there so often he even had his own signature drink created by the staff, “The Robert.” Any given day of the week you could find him in “his” booth at Houston’s restaurant, he always had a palate for the finer things in life. Eating at home just wasn’t an option. Opening Robert Clarke & Associates in 1979, he pursued his passion for numbers and helped thousands of people over the years to manage their finances and taxes, something most people dreaded doing. He was loving, caring, and a forever optimistic person. He was loved and admired by so many and will be forever missed, but never forgotten, as a part of him will live in all those who knew him.

Robert is preceded in death by his parents, Wesley and Patricia Clarke, and his loving wife, Arlene Clarke. He is survived by his three children: Tom Clarke and his wife Ana, Randy Clarke, and Lauren Landrum and her husband Doug; and he is also survived by six grandchildren: Danielle Lang, Clarissa Clarke, Matt Clarke, Samuel Clarke, Annasophia Clarke, and Amelia Clarke; and five great-grandchildren Hannah and Xander Lang, Silas Barth, Carly and Drew Clarke; and his friend and business partner Julie Morales, and his beloved cats Cita and Tigger.

An interment service with Military Honors is to be conducted at eleven o’clock in the morning on Sunday, the 5th of August, at Brookfield Rural Cemetery in Brookfield, New York.