Michael Clarke: Born for a
Firetruck
Jack
Clarke may have been a New York City police officer, but
from the very beginning his youngest son, Michael, had
this affinity for firefighting.
"When he was young, he just loved to sit in the
engines at the fire house," said Michael Clarke's father,
who remembers giving his son that bright red firetruck he
pedaled around in.
And so, even though he became a top student at Wagner
College and a star on the hockey team, it was not a
surprise to his father when Michael Clarke joined the
Fire Department three years ago.
Firefighter Clarke, 27, was delighted several months
ago to be transferred from Staten Island to Engine 8 and
Ladder 2 on East 51st Street in Manhattan, "because there
was much more action in Manhattan," his father said.
Sept. 11 was a scheduled day off; Firefighter Clarke
went to work because he had switched days with another
firefighter.
Now, at Wagner College, they have retired Michael
Clarke's hockey number &emdash; 34. His father misses
those regular phone calls from him, the ones that came to
mean so much more after Jack Clarke's wife, Eileen, died
three years ago.
"He'd call every day," the father recalls. "And he'd
say, `Hi, Pop. How you doing?' "
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