Dad kept me grounded, says daughter of Oliver Clarke
DESCRIBING THE late Oliver Clarke as an incredible philanthropist and businessman and “undercover celebrity”, Alexandra Clarke said that her late father always sought to keep her grounded, warning against notions of entitlement.
Clarke, a banker and media tycoon who transformed The Gleaner Company over four decades of leadership, died last Saturday at his home after a battle with cancer. He was 75.
Alexandra revealed in a post on her Facebook account on Tuesday that there would be no formal funeral for her father in keeping with the family’s privacy.
The self-confessed tattoo-loving radical said that her father never bragged about his wealth and was averse to giving her unqualified handouts without just cause.
“I went to St Hugh’s Prep, and
I remember one day coming home and realising that I was from a different socio-economic background than a lot of my peers at the school, and I came home and asked, ‘Daddy, am I rich?’ and he laughed.
“He said, ‘No, honey, you are not rich. I might have a level of wealth, but you are simply whatever I choose to give you.’
“... I always had this simultaneous understanding that the things that his privilege or his power or his wealth gave me were things that he worked for, and I was never entitled to,” Alexandra told The Gleaner during an interview yesterday.
BALANCING WORK AND FAMILY
The 24-year-old said that Clarke always struck a balance between work and family obligations. Alexandra said that although her dad often found it challenging to show raw emotion, he tried to make up for that shortcoming in later years by showering her with hugs.
“I think he was incredibly busy, but when he felt that we weren’t able to spend enough time together, or he worried about any of that stuff, he would take me with him,” she said, recalling invitations to a host of cocktail parties and luncheons. But she came to realise that those events were a training ground of life lessons and a platform for access.
“I got to know how he asked hard questions, but he would always remind me that this is not a meeting for you, so you have to keep quiet, but you can come and you will learn. I had nothing to contribute, but he wanted me to always be with him and learn from him,”said Alexandra.
“To this day, there are people who I have been able to reach out to because of the rooms he has invited me into even as a very young person,” Alexandra said.
In a three-page tribute to her father posted on her Facebook page, Alexandra announced that the COVID-19 pandemic was one of the considerations behind the family deciding against a formal funeral to commemorate Clarke’s death.
Alexandra, however, expressed gratitude to all who have memorialised her father, expressing thanks on behalf of her mother and Clarke’s widow, Monica Ladd.
She said that persons who wanted to make contributions in her father’s honour could do so to either the Mustard Seed Communities or the Savanna-la-Mar Hospital.