World War II bomber Pilot, John A. Clark to Speak at the Dexter Memorial Day Ceremony

The Rotary Club of Dexter is pleased to announce that John A. Clark, Senior Life Member of the Yankee Air Museum, Life Member, 100th Bomb Group Association, and Life Member, Eighth Air Force Historical Association will be the speaker for the Dexter Memorial Day Ceremony in Monument Park on Monday May 27, 2013.

Dr. Clark is Professor Emeritus of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Michigan. During WWII he served as a B-17 (“Flying Fortress”) copilot with the 100th Bomb Group, U.S. Eighth Air Force, completing 32 missions over Germany. His WWII memoir, An Eighth Air Force Combat Diary, was published in 2001. After the war he served as a pilot with the 107th Bomb Squadron, Michigan Air National Guard, 1946-1948.

 In 1945 he married Marie Mountain who also served as an Air Force pilot in WWII as a member of the Women’s Air Force Service Pilots (WASP).  Mrs. Clark, who passed away in 2008, published her WWII memoir in 2005 in the book, Dear Mother and Daddy: World War II Letters Home from a WASP.

 Dr. Clark received his undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Michigan in 1948. He earned his Master’s and Doctor’s degrees from MIT in 1949 and 1953 and served on the MIT research and teaching faculty from 1949 to 1957. In 1957 he was appointed to the University of Michigan faculty as Professor of Mechanical Engineering, later serving as Department Chairman for two terms. He retired in 1988 after 32 years on the Michigan faculty. Dr. Clark has devoted his professional life to the fields of Thermodynamics, Heat Transfer, Fluid Mechanics, Thermal and Nuclear Power, Space Propulsion Systems and Solar Energy. He has published extensively in these fields and has been the recipient of several professional honors and awards. For over 50 years he has been an engineering consultant in the fields of Energy and Thermal Processes.