Gordon, Clarence C.

Clarence C. Gordon was born in Seattle, Washington on July 26, 1928. While growing up in Seattle during the Great Depression and World War II, Gordon’s family had very little money and he was in and out of school during most of his youth. He favored hunting, fishing and other outdoors activities over spending time in the classroom, and this preference often resulted in suspensions and even expulsion. Despite these common absences and disciplinary problems, Gordon gradated from public high school in Seattle at the age of seventeen. He spent the next four years of his life as a commercial fisherman in Alaska, and then was drafted for a brief stint in the Korean War. Upon release from his military service, Gordon returned to commercial fishing until he met his future wife, Nancy Ward, while taking vocational training in seamanship. Deciding that commercial fishing would not be a favorable career for a married man with a family, Gordon enrolled at the University of Washington in Seattle.

After two years in pre-medicine at the University of Washington, Gordon switched his major to Mycology, the study of fungus, graduating with a Bachelor’s degree in 1956. Next, Gordon was accepted for gradate study at Washington State University in Pullman, where he remained until receiving a Ph.D. in Plant Pathology in 1960. He joined the faculty at the University of Montana-Missoula in the fall of 1960 as a professor in the Department of Botany. During his time as a professor at the University, Clancy Gordon was heavily involved with advancing the status of Environmental Studies on campus, founding the Environmental Studies laboratory in 1963 and helping to establish the Environmental Studies Gradate Program in 1970. He served as the first director of the new gradate program from 1970-1975. Gordon was a prolific author and researcher, often writing numerous articles and participating in a variety of research projects simultaneously. He was also a respected teacher who was able to communicate his message of environmental activism though informal and unconventional methods of instruction.

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