***

Clarence grew up in the late 1930s, becoming perhaps the second-most famous person in rural Monroe County — the literary capital of Alabama. The most prominent was Harper Lee, whose Pulitzer Prize-winning book, To Kill a Mockingbird, was inspired by her life there. Unlike Clarence, she never rode a Harley.

After graduating from high school in Florida, and without a student deferment, Clarence was drafted into the US Navy, where he served four years, working for the Armed Service Intelligence Agency, a forerunner of the CIA. This was his introduction to the world of electronics.

His family owned property in both Florida and Alabama, which allowed Clarence in his post-military life to choose among the Universities of Florida, Florida State, Alabama and Auburn (then called Alabama Polytechnic Institute). He recalls opting for Tuscaloosa, “because they had the best football team;” Bear Bryant was the coach and Joe Willie Namath the star quarterback. Clarence was interested in radios and communications, and declared Electrical Engineering as his major.

In 1961, Clarence earned his bachelor’s degree from Alabama, then went to work for Bell Telephone Laboratories, a research facility in Murray Hill, New Jersey. There, he worked on the Telstar “experiment,” which would become the world’s first communications satellite. Three years later, after teaching electrical engineering at Alabama, Clarence reported to work at Communications Satellite Corporation in Bethesda, Maryland — now called Comsat, where he was their tenth employee. While at Comsat, Clarence picked up two master’s degrees from New York University — one in mathematics, the other in electrical engineering — and taught math at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

Clarence retired from corporate life for good in the early 1970s, and bought a three and a-half acre marina and boat yard in Annapolis, Maryland. He quickly decided it was hard to pay for the place by painting boat bottoms, so Clarence reduced the marina to one acre and commercially developed the remaining property. Today, it’s called Yacht Haven of Annapolis, a 55-slip marina, boat yard and commercial office space – and Clarence is the Controlling Partner. That means he’s on conference calls a few times a week, visits several times a year, and signs checks. He calls that “95 percent retired.”

A member of the Annapolis Yacht Club since 1972, Clarence dropped his membership last year because most of the people he knew there had either moved to Florida or died. His proximity to water piqued his interest in boats. He’s had quite a few, including racing sailboats from 30 feet to 48 feet, and a 52-foot sport fishing boat. After deciding Chesapeake Bay wasn’t ideal for fishing, Clarence began to fish out of Morehead City, North Carolina, and eventually moved there to develop a residential waterfront community.

As a youngster, Clarence had motor scooters like Cushmans, then took a long break from motorcycles until 1996 while he was building a house in Beaufort, North Carolina. That’s when he got his first of five Harley-Davidsons, culminating in a new 2006 CVO Ultra Classic Electra Glide, which he rides today. In June 2024, at age 90, Clarence wisely chose to enhance his safety and installed a trike kit on that motorcycle. And in 2025, he added a Honda Rebel 1100 DCT to his overflowing garage.

Clarence still enjoys two-wheel travel, and pedals his Specialized Turbo Levo Carbon, an e-bike, whenever he has the chance. At one time, he was an avid mountain biker, even riding the crazy hard Crested Butte-to-Aspen route over 12,705-foot Pearl Pass.

In addition to bikes and boats, Clarence had a passion for planes. He has more than 8,000 hours as a pilot-in-command, has an ATP (airline transport pilot) rating, and owned a series of Pipers, Cessnas, an Aerostar and a Mitsubishi turbo-prop. His last airplane was a Cessna Cardinal, part of a progression to smaller, slower and less-complicated aircraft.

In 1983, while living in North Carolina, Clarence bought property in Aspen, and moved there in 2005 — first to a townhouse, then a home in Aspen’s West End. Twelve years later, he relocated 30 miles downvalley to Carbondale, where he’s lived ever since.

Clarence and his wife, Anne, have been married nearly 40 years. He has three adult children – a son in Hawaii, another in North Carolina, and a daughter near Glenwood Springs, Colorado, who’s given him two grandchildren, 12 and 17. They live just minutes from the Blackwell’s home in Carbondale.

Over the years, Clarence has ridden to Sturgis several times, but hasn’t been on an extended, multi-state journey. He ended that streak by joining me on my 2024 ride. Clarence was excited to join the crew for the 2025 ride.

***

Clarence Blackwell Gallery

Click on any image to enlarge it.