Clarke family scholarship gift to ASME totals nearly $1.4 million

David Soukup
ASME Operations

A $1.4 million gift to ASME is now in the hands of the ASME Foundation and ASME Auxiliary for distribution through their scholarship programs.

Both units of ASME had received part of the bequest from Lucille V. Clarke in 1999. The remainder, which arrived in January 2003, brought the total each unit received from the Clarke family of Philadelphia to $693,000.

Lucille V. Clarke was the daughter of ASME Honorary Member Charles W.E. Clarke and Lucy Clarke. Although Clarke never obtained a degree in engineering, he was highly regarded as an outstanding contributor to the development of steam-power
generation. He became a member of ASME in 1907, a Fellow in 1938, and an Honorary Member in 1956.

At the age of 15, Clarke started work as an office boy tracing mechanical drawings. When he was 20, he joined the firm of Sargent and Lundy, where he began his engineering career. He also held positions with the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad, Stone and Webster, and Dwight P. Robinson and Co.

The Robinson firm merged with others to become United Engineers and Constructors, with main offices in Philadelphia. In 1945, Clarke was elected vice president and director of the company. He retired from the firm in 1956, but remained a board member for another year.

His wife, Lucy, lived to the age of 100 and was a Charter Member of the Boston Section and an officer of the Auxiliary's Philadelphia Section. Their only child, Lucille, never married. Although her career was as a news correspondent, she, too, was very active in the Auxiliary's Philadelphia Section.

ASME recently came into possession of Clarke's ASME membership certificate in a unique way. In December 2002, Phoebe Baxter of King of Prussia, Pa., wrote that she went to a yard sale many years ago and bought the frame that happened to house the certificate. Now in the process of "decluttering," she said she contacted ASME before disposing of the frame and certificate to see if anyone knew of Clarke.

The Clarke family story is similar to hers. Baxter's father did not finish high school and went to work as an office boy for the Lancaster, Pa., newspaper. He worked his way up and became an editor at the New Era, the evening newspaper. Like Lucille Clarke, Baxter said she was an only child for whom it was very important to earn a college degree.

A committee representing the ASME Auxiliary, ASME Foundation and the ASME Council on Education has joint responsibility for the Lucy and Charles W.E. Clarke Scholarship Program. At the Clarke family's request, scholarships will be granted to incoming freshmen majoring in mechanical engineering.

For more information, contact David Soukup, executive director of the ASME Foundation, at (212) 591-7397, or via e-mail: soukupd@asme.org.

 

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