Chandler (Chan) Lee Clarkson (24 June 1954 – 13 July 2024)

An afternoon in the early 1960s Chan was batting baseballs to his friend in the grassy boulevard of Forrer Blvd. where he grew up. An errant hit sent the ball into the windshield of a car as it drove past. The car stopped and, suppressing the urge to run, Chan approached the vehicle to apologize and talk with the driver. Some days after the incident his mother received a letter from the car owner complimenting her on having raised a son that was willing to take responsibility for his actions with such integrity and courteousness. That driver recognized in Chan as a young boy what his friends, neighbors, co-workers and casual acquaintances experienced while interacting with him throughout his life. Chan had a ready smile, an infectious laugh and was uniformly friendly and kind to all.

Chan lived in the Dayton, Ohio suburb of Oakwood with a single mother, as his father passed away when Chan was only five years old. Chan’s older sister was 10 years older than Chan, so he was raised to be quite independent. Chan attended Oakwood schools, and graduated from Oakwood High School in 1972. In high school he especially enjoyed biology with his teacher, Mr. Ferguson. He assisted Mr. Ferguson by helping prepare for lab classes. This included accidentally washing down the back room of the biology classroom when a piece of rubber tubing got loose and sprayed water throughout the space and electrocuted an aquarium of fish when a light was knocked in (the latter was a true accident). Chan spent many weekends paddling, swimming and camping with his friends Alan Braley and Bill Dennison. He loved being outdoors and was always angling for opportunities to work outside in his career. Chan, Alan and Bill were on the cross country and track teams and would often gather at Chan’s house for various ping pong or indoor golf competitions.

Chan attended Ohio University in Athens, Ohio graduating with a degree in Botany in 1976. To help with the expense of attending college he worked in the cafeteria. He said that he did not mind the work so much, but did not like always having dish-pan-hands. Chan’s mother, known by all as “Peachy”, was a guidance counselor at a local school and Chan would join her for summers in Myrtle Beach, SC or the west coast of Florida. When Peachy retired, she moved to Sarasota and Chan also moved to Florida following college.

Settling in Bradenton Beach, Florida he began working for the Florida Department of Agriculture performing plant development research. A horrendous car accident rendered him unable to walk or work for some time. As a result of the car accident, where he was struck in his VW bug by a drunk driver, Chan had a lifetime of medical issues, including multiple joint replacements. Chan also had bouts with cancer. Chan never complained and maintained an active outdoor lifestyle at work and play. Following his recovery, he attended the University of Florida at Gainesville obtaining a MS degree.

Working as a consultant, Chan eventually joined Ruesch Environmental Services as an ecologist living in and working out of Lakeland, Florida. In this capacity he spent much of his time in the field stomping through cow pastures, swamps, hammocks and streams to delineate wetlands, identify wildlife habitats, map out plant zones, finding the location of nests for threatened or endangered bird species and relocating tortoises. Chan became an accomplished naturalist and he was a great person to learn from while taking a walk or kayak trip through the woodlands and swamps of Florida. He was once seen lying on the ground with his arm inserted down a hole to his shoulder. He slowly extracted his arm to reveal a tortoise he had grabbed by the back of its shell. Somehow he knew that he would find the rear of the tortoise and not the mouth. He decided to retire after nearly 26 years with the company when it disbanded in 2014.

Chan and his friend Bill Dennison volunteered at the Dayton Boy’s Club for many years as lifeguards and they were able to obtain SCUBA certifications at a very young age. Chan became a proficient SCUBA diver and was active in various diving clubs. While living in the Bradenton area Chan would freedive near Anna Maria Island to spear fish, including large grouper. Chan could hold his breath for a very long time and spent many hours snorkeling in the ocean, typically by himself. After moving inland to Lakeland he was a founding member of the Reef Seekers Dive Club there and later joined a SCUBA club in Tampa. With these groups and on his own he frequently dove inland and coastal waters of Florida. He also traveled to the Caribbean islands, South Pacific, Hawaii, Egypt and the Pacific Northwest and many other locations on dive trips.

Another of Chan’s passions was kayaking. He was active in a kayak group for many years and traveled with them on extended camping excursions. These trips took him to the black and clear waters of inland Florida, along the Florida coast in the Gulf of Mexico, the swamps of southern Georgia and the 10,000 islands of the Everglades. He also would get together with informal meet-up groups some weekends to kayak on nearby water bodies. Having developed a love of sailing as an undergraduate, he owned the same open cockpit day sailor for much of the time he lived in Florida. He enjoyed taking friends out sailing, and to her delight, he would take his mother out for a sailing excursion almost every Mother’s Day.

During retirement Chan moved to St. Petersburg, Florida. Here he continued to enjoy bicycling traversing the miles of bike trails in the city and across the bay in Tampa with friends and meet-up groups. These excursions were as much for reaching a destination having food or good coffee as they were for exercise. Many of his weekends were spent as a volunteer with the Tampa Bay Estuary Program assisting with various projects to help insure the health of Tampa Bay. He also was active delivering meals-on-wheels in the St. Petersburg area and volunteering at the St. Petersburg food bank.

Chan was a devoted son and brother, looking after both his mother and his older sister as their health deteriorated. Chan never married, but had several long term relationships, in addition to a wide ranging friend group. Chan served as best man at his friend Alan Braley’s wedding to Barbara in Fairbanks, Alaska in 1980 and stayed in touch with both Alan and Bill throughout his life. Chan was contemplating moving to Kentucky and was on a solitary road trip to explore housing options when he died, quietly while sitting in a motel chair. He was always looking forward to his next adventure. Chan was preceded in death by his father Ralph R. Clarkson (1959), mother Evelyn D. "Peachy" Clarkson (2002) and sister Diantha C. Lohman (2008).

Chan donated his estate to the American Cancer Society and donations in Chan’s memory may be made to this organization.

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