Clarke M. Thomas

Clarke M. Thomas was born on January 11, 1926, in Kansas City, Missouri. His parents were missionaries in Sierra Leone where he spent his childhood until moving to Coffeyville, Kansas, for a formal education at age 11. He later enlisted in the Army, where he served as a private in the 97th Infantry Division, touring Germany and the Czech Republic toward the end of World War II. He earned a journalism degree at the University of Kansas and worked for several newspapers in Nebraska and Oklahoma before being recruited to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's editorial staff in 1971, where he worked for over 30 years.