Rufus Wheelwright Clark ’34

Rufe Clark, who retired in 1977 from the engineering staff of the California State Lands Division after a career in "Big Oil," as he called it, died Dec. 23, 2003.

"My claim to fame," he once wrote a classmate," is national records (in US Masters Swimming) in the 200-meter breaststroke in 1976 and 1977, and runner-up in 1978." He took up swimming "when a foot went bad," and he recommended "this pastime for those interested in physical well-being and hard work."

Rufe was married in 1940 to Elise Houghton, who predeceased him. The couple had three children, Susan, Rufus, and Katherine, and they lived for many years "on our small parcel in La Habra Heights [Calif.]." Since 2000 Rufe lived in Wauna, Wash., "a spot that consists of a post office, firehouse, gas station, and market" in an area "rapidly becoming populated by out-of-state refugees seeking greener pastures."

The Class of 1934