Ella N.S. Clarke

The Baltimore Sun

Ella Nora S. Clarke, an avid conservationist and former city schoolteacher, died July 13 of complications from dementia at Fairhaven Retirement Community in Sykesville. The longtime Beckleysville resident was 90.

Born Ella Nora Shank, she attended city schools and graduated from Forest Park High School. She earned bachelor's degrees from Western Maryland College, now McDaniel College, and the Johns Hopkins University, and she earned a master's degree from Columbia University. She taught mathematics for 20 years, initially at Hamilton Junior High and then at her alma mater, Forest Park.

A nature lover, she enjoyed hiking and camping. She was an active member of the Mountain Club of Maryland, where she met her husband of 50 years, Charles G. Clarke.

"We met in the Mountain Club and honeymooned in the White Mountains of New Hampshire," said Mr. Clarke, a retired civil engineer.

Mrs. Clarke was also involved in the Sierra Club, the Nature Conservancy, the Save-the-Redwoods League, the Cylburn Arboretum Association and the Maryland Ornithological Society.

On their first trip out of the United States, the Clarkes went on a game-viewing safari to East Africa. In all, they visited 32 countries and, wherever possible, they hiked.

Their travels took them to North American mountain ranges as well as the Andes, the Alps, and the Himalayas. In 1980, Tenzing Norgay, the Sherpa who guided Sir Edmund Hillary on the first successful ascent of Mount Everest, accompanied the Clarkes' group when it climbed the third-highest peak in the Himalayas.

The couple resided for more than 30 years on a farmette adjoining the Prettyboy watershed in Beckleysville. Mrs. Clarke cleared paths for nature trails and planted wildflowers and shrubs, particularly azaleas, that she had rescued from areas slated for highway construction.

Plans for a memorial concert at Fairhaven are incomplete.

In addition to her husband, Mrs. Clarke is survived by a niece, Bonnie Racine of Elkton.

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