Clarke, L. Floyd family

The Clarke family was honored as the 1998 Wyoming Family of the Year, selected by the Associated Parents of the University of Wyoming.

Lemuel Floyd Clarke was born to David Robert and Martha Cooley Clarke June 21, 1906 in Newton, Utah. He received his bachelor and master of science degrees from Utah State Agricultural College in 1927 and 1931, respectively. In 1935 he was awarded a Ph.D. in zoology from the University of Chicago. Clarke joined the zoology faculty of the University of Wyoming in 1935 and served as department head from 1942 to 1968. In addition, he founded UW’s Jackson Hole Biological Research Station in Moran, Wyoming, near the Teton Mountains, and served as its director from 1953 to 1972. In 1968 he was appointed associate dean of the College of Health Sciences, a position he held until his retirement in 1976. Clarke was awarded UW’s prestigious George Duke Humphrey Distinguished Faculty Award in 1965 and also the Outstanding Former Faculty Award for the College of Arts and Sciences in 1996. He was married to Nina Robinson June 16, 1927 and they had three children, Lucille, Evelyn, and David. L. Floyd Clarke died November 12, 1981.

Nina Evelyn Robinson Clarke was born April 30, 1908 to Heber Craven and Jane Ann (Lamborn) Robinson in Laketown, Utah, a pioneer Mormon community. She attended Laketown High School and then Brigham Young College in Logan, Utah. After her marriage to Floyd in 1927 and their move to Laramie in 1935, she took classes at UW, worked as the librarian at the Science Library, and supported her husband in his various responsibilities as a faculty member and administrator. In 1993, Nina established the L. Floyd Clarke Fund in Zoology and Physiology at UW. She died March 7, 1998.

Lucille Clarke Dumbrill was born May 16, 1928 in Laketown, Utah. She attended elementary and secondary schools in Laramie, Wyoming, graduating from University High School in 1945. She then attended the University of Wyoming where she received a bachelor’s degree in 1949 and a master’s degree in 1951, both in mathematics. Along with her husband Richard, Lucille became active in the Wyoming State Historical Society, which led to a long career of volunteer service in historic preservation at UW and in the state of Wyoming. In 1988, President Ronald Reagan appointed her to the President’s Advisory Council on Historic Preservation. In 2001, she was awarded the UW Alumni Association’s Medallion Service Award. She was married to Richard S. Dumbrill on June 20, 1949 and the couple had two children, Deborah and Douglas.

Evelyn Clarke Skordas was born March 2, 1931 in Logan, Utah. She attended public schools in Laramie and also the University of Wyoming, and was a talented flute player. She married James Skordas June 17, 1950 and soon after they moved to Rawlins, Wyoming. The couple had four children, Alice Ann, Linda Sue, Steven Clarke, and James David. Evelyn died March 3, 1972.

David Robinson Clarke, M.D., was born November 23, 1943 in Laramie, Wyoming. He attended University elementary and secondary schools and graduated from the University of Wyoming with a bachelor of science degree with honors in 1965. From 1965 to 1969, Dr. Clarke attended medical school at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in Denver where he received his Doctor of Medicine degree Magna Cum Laude in 1969. He served his internship and residency at the center before spending 1975-1976 training in pediatric heart surgery in London. He returned to the Health Sciences Center in 1976 as assistant director of the thoracic surgery residency program and became chief of cardiothoracic surgery at the center in 1980 and at Children’s Hospital in 1984. He was named a University of Wyoming Distinguished Alumnus in 1985. He married Deborah E. Makush in May, 1980.

From the guide to the L. Floyd Clarke family papers, 1906-1999, (University of Wyoming. American Heritage Center.)