Dr. Charles Edward Clarke dedicated his life to helping people both professionally and personally.

He practiced medicine for more than 60 years before retiring from his practice in Glen Osborne in December 2012.

The longtime Sewickley physician died at his home on July 26. He was 98.

Anne Clarke Ronce, one of his five daughters, had moved back to the area from San Francisco to help take care of him in his twilight years.

“It was extraordinary (growing up with him) because not many people do work in their lives that is truly a vocation — not a job, not a career,” she said. “He was completely devoted to his patients and his ideals about the practice of medicine. People called at all times of the day and night, and that’s just the way it was. Dad would get up in the middle of the night and go to the hospital.”

Clarke graduated with highest honors from Princeton University in 1944 and from the University of Pittsburgh Medical School in 1946.

He began practicing medicine while serving his country as an Army captain stationed in the Philippines.

Clarke was overseas when he proposed to his sweetheart, Cecelia Mamaux, via radiotelephone.

When he returned to Pittsburgh, he cared for patients at UPMC Presbyterian, Passavant and Mercy hospitals. Clarke also commuted many hours every week to help folks at the United Mineworkers Union Clinic.

The family moved to Sewickley in 1960, and Clarke joined the staff of Sewickley Valley Hospital, now Heritage Valley Health System.

Dr. Alfred Doyle, a retired oncologist from Sewickley, recalled working with Clarke at the hospital during the late 1960s and early ’70s. The two had a professional relationship for at least 50 years, Doyle said.

“He was extremely thorough,” Doyle said. “He would come into the emergency room at night to see unassigned patients and take care of people. He was all about life, death and human nature.”

Ronce said her father studied the teaching of Sir William Osler, known as the “father of modern medicine,” as well as read from various medical journals and learned about many religions and how faith can impact healing.

“Dad was not a traditionally religious person, but he had respect for what we can’t know or measure or pin down,” she said. “He had total respect for all kinds of religions and practices.”

Clarke would have his own practice in the Critmore Professional Building along Ohio River Boulevard in Sewickley.

Dr. Chris O’Donnell, a fellow physician, had an office next door.

O’Donnell saw him shortly before he died and thanked him for his years of counsel.

“He was very high character and much respected by nurses and other doctors, and looked up upon because of his experience,” O’Donnell said. “He’s a very dedicated physician and very much a gentleman physician.”

O’Donnell often would receive some of Clarke’s patients. It was in talks with Clarke and his patients that he learned some things that can’t often be found in books.

“I learned it was OK to get close to patients and get to know them,” O’Donnell said. “He was very comfortable with the working class. He had a desire to be educated.”

Clarke also gave no quarter for medical professionals who did not treat nurses and others on the front lines well.

“He didn’t have much time for doctors that lacked respect for nurses or nurses’ aides or people who cleaned bedpans,” O’Donnell said. “He was a team kind of guy before they even had that concept. Charlie was very humble, didn’t seek out attention nor did he want attention.”

Ronce also recalled several times when Clarke took fellow doctors to task for how they treated nurses, including a 10-minute speech at Sewickley Valley Hospital about how important they were and not to complain when they call at any time.

“His message was, ‘There are no inconvenient hours. We are physicians,’ ” Ronce said. “If the nurse is calling you, she’s calling you for a reason. He just had this very high standard for what it meant to be a physician.”

No matter how many long hours Clarke gave to his patients, he always made time for family.

Ronce recalled her father making props and crafting things for school plays.

One outfit, in particular, was worn by her late older sister, Katherine, whose stage name was “Caitlin Clarke.”

She had a part in an adaptation of the musical “Camelot” at Mt. Gallitzin Academy, a private Catholic school in Baden.

“When she started singing and the costume lit up, the audience gasped at the beauty of this thing,” Ronce said. “Dad made that for her, probably lost nights of sleep working on that costume.”

Ronce said their father never got to see the performances because of work.

Clarke’s girls spent as much time with their father as they could and would sometimes be late for school because of watching the CBS television series “Captain Kangaroo.”

The children’s show aired weekday mornings for 29 years, from 1955 to 1984.

“He would say, ‘I think this is a very educational show,’ ” Ronce said of the family’s entertainment selection.

Clarke also was big on getting to the point during conversations and cautioned family members on the use of the word suffering when they were being mildly inconvenienced.

“He had tremendous respect for language and the correct use of language,” Ronce said. “One of dad’s biggest compliments he could pay you was, ‘You wasted no words.’ What you say means something.”

Clarke joined the Edgeworth Club, where the family played tennis, squash, swam and joined bowling leagues. He also was a member of the Sewickley Heights Golf Club.

Clarke was born in 1921, the son of Edward and Anne Henderson Clarke.

His wife and eldest daughter, Katherine, preceded him in death. He is survived by daughters Ronce, Constance Clarke, Cecelia Clarke and Victoria Clarke (husband Brian Graham), grandchildren Colin, Devan and Charles Graham, and brother Andrew Clarke.

No memorial service is planned at this time. Anyone wishing to may leave comments at Richarddcolefh.com. Commemorative gifts may be directed to Heritage Valley Health System Foundation or to the Sewickley Public Library.

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