Clarence H. Beatty ’73

Clarence died April 2, 2023. At the time of his death, he was making plans with classmate Carlton Brown to attend our 50th reunion.

Clarence was born May 18, 1951, in Stroud, Okla. His parents moved to Oklahoma City, where Clarence met Carl Barclay in the seventh grade. They attended grade school, Douglass High School, and Princeton together. Clarence majored in mathematics and wrote his thesis under the aegis of Professor Lee Neuwirth. In an oral history he recorded in 2015 for his hometown library, Clarence spoke of his admiration for and long-term friendship with Neuwirth.

While in college, Clarence was active in the civil-rights movement. During the summer of 1970, Clarence and Carlton Brown participated in voter-registration drives in Southern states at peril to their own lives. In 1971, Clarence spent the summer in Liberia as part of Operation Crossroads Africa. He later wrote that his Liberian summer was the most memorable of his collegiate experiences.

After Princeton, Clarence worked as a computer programmer for Eastman Kodak. In 1977, he earned an MBA from Stanford, and for the next 37 years, Clarence worked in banking in Texas and Oklahoma. When he retired in Oklahoma City in 2015, he devoted his free time to working with nonprofits that needed his level of expertise in financial matters. He led several church bond programs and taught financial literacy classes to young people through St. John Missionary Baptist Church, where he served as a deacon for more than 30 years.

The class extends its sympathy to his children Christina, Angela, and William. Clarence was missed at Reunions this year by his many Princeton friends.