Clarence Robert Clements ’31, ’72 (Hon.); P’71, P’75: A Memorial Minute
Upon the occasion of C. Robert Clements’ appointment as the George Albert Wentworth Professor of Mathematics in 1985, Principal Stephen Kurtz wrote, “You are living proof that ‘the school man,’ like the blue-footed booby you look for worldwide, is a species endangered but not extinct.” And while it is true that much of Bob’s career was spent teaching and caring for students at boys’ boarding schools, he proved himself to be the consummate school person during his tenure at Exeter following co-education after 1970.
In fact, during his tenure as chair of the department, Bob himself was most proud of hiring and retaining women: “We have been able to attract and hold good mathematics teachers…because of the quality of our program, because of the competence of our tenured members, and mostly, because of the generous collegiality embraced by all…During the past ten years [1978-88] half of the new members of the department have been women…Right now we are in a very strong position with a number of excellent women in the department. I hope we can maintain this trend.”
Born July 5, 1925, in New York City, Bob and his brother James essentially grew up in a group home in Hudson, NY because their parents needed help with their care. They lived there until high school graduation, while always remaining in touch with their parents. Despite this beginning, Bob graduated a year early as high school class valedictorian in 1943.
During World War II, Bob served as a navigator in the U.S. Air Force. After the war, he returned home and enrolled at Hamilton College, graduating with a B.A. in 1949 and taking a teaching position at Choate (now Choate Rosemary Hall). During the Korean War (1951-52), Bob returned to duty in the Air Force. Rejoining the faculty at Choate, Bob taught there for two decades, becoming Math Department Chair, before accepting an appointment at Exeter in 1969. Colleague Eric Bergofsky believes Bob’s military experience served him well, particularly in moments of crisis. Clem had a talent for keeping challenging moments in proper perspective. When, for example, a colleague or student was feeling unduly stressed, Bob remained calm. He had, after all, lived through Korean bombing missions. He had a knack for lowering the temperature of the moment and would often say, “Getting shot at over Korea while flying at 30,000 feet is a crisis, this is a problem we can solve.”
A veteran teacher, coach, and dormitory advisor, Bob immediately made a name for himself at Exeter as a versatile and brilliant mathematician, a colorful character with a sharp wit and unwavering devotion to the responsibilities of boarding school life.
When asked to contribute to this remembrance for Bob, the response from alumni was overwhelmingly positive and enthusiastic, many more than can be related here. The common denominators were clear: a favorite teacher, he was caring, down-to-earth, rigorous, funny, mischievous, kind, and generous. Michele Kreisler ’85 wrote, “Mr. Clements was the most outstanding mathematics teacher I have ever had… [He} held a lively class that was never boring, and many times felt like family…[he] made learning an abstract subject fun and easy.”
Bob had a talent for demonstrating the practical applications of math. Students recalled, for example, Bob’s gambling escapades: “I loved Mr. Clements’ math class and remember his love of gambling…he liked to play blackjack and… [he told us] he would pay someone to drag him away from a table after his winnings had reached a certain level,” (Philip Von Burg). Joseph Crowley ’77 remembered that “he showed us how to do a card trick that relied on doing a perfect shuffle (exactly one card at a time from each side of the shuffle). We solved math and geometry problems involving playing cards. Nevertheless, we mostly ended up on the right track in life.”
Many students credit Bob with influencing their choices of college major and career. Elizabeth Scout Joy ’90 wrote that “Mr. Clements’ sarcastic, dry humor, chalky tweed jackets, and robust ‘stache could be intimidating to some, but I thought he was funny…[he] helped me gain a confidence that put me on the path to be a math major in college and then enjoy a career in Finance.”
John A Koski summed it up well by writing, “Mr. Clements was truly a remarkable instructor and made such a significant impact on my time at Exeter and my education. He demanded excellence and rigor in the classroom, but all wrapped in a fun and engaging demeanor. His subject was mathematics of course, but the learnings from Mr. Clements’ classroom were broader and encompassed core skills of critical thinking and broad problem solving. He certainly represented the paradigm of the Exeter teacher…a union of goodness and knowledge.”
Bob Clements’ influence, however, went far beyond the classroom. Bob Morse ’89 wrote, “As a new day student…I was the only one in my French 11 class not to have taken a class in French before high school. I was completely lost. And so “clutching a generously graded ‘D-‘ test in hand, I sought out Mr. Clements in the Math Dept [room]…My thoughts ran along the lines of: What the heck is the chair of the math department supposed to do for a 14 year old failing French?…He told me how much he’d suffered in learning a foreign language in college, and how the thing that worked was to write out each new word five times and then just toss it in the trash. I don’t know why, but I felt like he’d given me the answer… I sat there copying words while he graded homework… We met several more times that fall. With his approach I passed French 11. Indeed, Lower year, I won second in French on Prize Day.”
Another story of Bob’s kindness and caring from Andrea Thomas who remembers being a late admit arriving after orientation and the start of classes, feeling “shellshocked and intimidated,” and having to take the math placement test. Clem gave her the test and left Andrea alone in an empty classroom. Unfortunately, she “could not figure out how to attack a SINGLE problem! Tears started flowing.” Returning to the department room, she silently handed the empty blue book back. “He opened it and looked at me and I burst into tears…He told me not to worry, that they would be able to place me in the right class without the test, that he was sure I was tired from the effort of getting to school…On a very challenging day, he put a young student at ease…I am forever grateful.”
Charles Neuhaus ’79 adds his memory of ending up in the infirmary with a broken arm and tooth, chagrined that he would be there for at least a week. He wrote, “Much to my surprise, a couple of days into my stay, Mr. Clements brought our entire math class to the infirmary, so I wouldn’t be left out… and fall behind in my studies. This gesture meant more to me than you can imagine… Mr. Clements was more than a math teacher; he was a good friend…”
In 1981 in honor of his work in the dormitory, parents of a former Exonian who lived in the dorm with Bob and his wife Louise, established the C. Robert Clements Scholarship, a financial aid fund for handicapped students. Both Clementses held this award in the highest esteem of Bob’s “awarded honors” and corresponded regularly with the recipients. As a further tribute to their work, in 1976 Robert and Louise were voted Honorary Members of the Class of 1931. Richard B. Treadwell ’84 said it best: “The main reason Mr. Clements has such success is because he likes dorm life…The pleasure he gets from dealing with students and running a dorm is apparent in how smoothly the dorm operates and how content the students are.” Probably the steak and ice cream socials, affectionately called “The Nerd Party” dinners that he and Louise provided for dorm students who had no unexcused absences for a whole semester, helped as well!
Bob Clements certainly met the challenge of Exeter’s triple threat: classroom, dormitory and athletics. He coached football, golf, track, and squash at Exeter. One year he was even “permitted to coach club baseball” [S. Kurtz]. Derek Stal ’89 remembered that as a tennis player making the transition to squash, his “interactions with Mr. Clements were among my most memorable at PEA. I can still hear him from the gallery above the courts, issuing somewhat nebulous coaching advice with daily frequency and great conviction, ‘C’mon, Stal, HIT the ball!’ He encouraged me to embrace the physical side of the game and not worry about the skills that I was obviously lacking.” Derek went on to describe how he chased “balls relentlessly until [his] more talented opponents either prevailed or ran out of patience and energy…Mr. Clements informally awarded us…with titles, mine being the ‘Biting Dog Award.’ As he explained, ‘Stal, you’re that annoying little dog that bites onto your ankle and never lets go.’ This is one of the awards of which I’m most proud. Try hard, never give up, and do what works for you.”
Despite his busy life in school, Bob filled much of the remaining time furthering his own education, and continually learning new mathematics, including pioneering computer use, and becoming the school’s first Computer Coordinator. Jack Heath, Dean of the Faculty wrote in 1985, “He is largely responsible for the breadth and depth of our mathematics curriculum. You name it, he teaches it…Of all our academic departments his is the most cohesive and professionally active…The teachers congregate in [the department] room during free periods and talk shop…Math teachers here develop by teaching, but also by hobnobbing with other math teachers.” Bob loved his department and colleagues and took immense pride in his role as a leader. The Math Department debated everything from the most elegant solutions to problems, to sports, politics, and especially school and departmental policies. No matter how heated or contentious arguments became, a democratic department vote always settled the issue and then Bob was off to play squash with the same colleagues he had just argued with.
Bob’s own education and training included the Harvard Academic Year Institute, followed by an Ed.M. from Harvard (1959), a Certificate of Advanced Study in computers from Wesleyan University (1964), a Klingenstein grant, and several NSF grants for further study. And he was continually and generously offering courses outside of Exeter in Advanced Placement Calculus and Probability. The head of the math department at Winnacunnet High School praised him for “the high quality of the presentation…[being] knowledgeable in the subject matter…and obviously well prepared…After a full day of teaching, we especially enjoyed our teacher’s excellent sense of humor.”
Colleagues at Exeter were similarly effusive and enthusiastic in their remarks. As a new hire in 1985, Joyce Kemp remembered her family being genuinely concerned whether their dog would be allowed in the dorm. In a phone conversation, Bob described how there had been major problems with dogs fighting and making trouble, and that a new rule was recently established that didn’t allow dogs (long, pregnant pause) in classrooms. He could probably hear sighs of relief all the way from Massachusetts. Stephanie Kay (now Girard) clearly recalled her first year at PEA, which was also the first year of the “new curriculum.” Bob was department chair, and when he handed Stephanie a copy of the weekly schedule and told her what formats and courses she was teaching, he said “If you can figure out where you are supposed to be when, you can have my job.”
Bob was a terrific self-taught golfer, who was head varsity golf coach for many years. In the ‘70’s, he helped create the end-of-year Faculty Golf Tournament, a tradition that lasted for many years past his retirement. It was open to all faculty and staff, and he particularly designed it so that everyone felt invited, whether a raw beginner or an accomplished golfer. There was always a nice party afterwards that included many humorous and fun awards. Bob himself won the championship many times and his close friend and math colleague Spruill Kilgore won the women’s title.
Tony Greene only taught with Bob for one year; however, he wrote, “Norma [Tony’s wife] and I saw a lot of him after his retirement because of our mutual involvement in duplicate bridge. When he retired, I remember him saying that he wanted time to pursue three passionate interests: birding, golf, and bridge. For at least 25 years after his retirement, Bob was a regular participant in national, regional, and sectional duplicate bridge tournaments. During this time, he reached the level of Gold Life Master, and he once won the New Hampshire state pairs championship…I took Bob’s probability course at the Exeter Math Conference. This was a field of mathematics he put to significant use both at the bridge table, and on his occasional visits to casinos. In 1991, while playing in Las Vegas at a national event, he once, in one day, played 4 sessions of bridge…finishing around 1 AM and then visited the casino for a few hours to unwind… Bob Clements was one of a kind.” And as Principal Steve Kurtz said, he was even “rumored among the students to be unwelcome in Las Vegas and Monte Carlo because of [his] penchant for breaking the bank.”
Bob’s passion for birding and traveling was also very well known. His daughter Joan said that he shared these “life-long loves” with his brother James “who was a world-renowned ornithologist, author of six editions of the book, “Birds of the World, A Check List.” Several of Bob’s photographs, faded by now, are still hanging in the department room. Dick Brown reported, “On one birding trip with Jim, the two crashed their small plane in the treetops of the jungle. Miraculously they were not hurt. Bob also loved to ski. Four faculty members (Bob, John Warren, Phillippe Turnysen and I) arranged our winter schedules so we did not have late morning class, allowing us to drive 1.25 hours to Gunstock for two hours of skiing.” The list of countries that Bob, and often Jim, traveled to included France, Germany, Peru, Botswana, Zambia, Argentina, Chile, New Zealand, Nepal, India, Sri Lanka, Paraguay, Bolivia, Venezuela, and Thailand.
Though Clem retired in 1990, he leapt at the chance to return to Exeter more than a decade later as a member of the Summer School faculty. Doug Rogers, who served as Summer School Director at that time, invited Bob to join emeriti instructors, Nita Pettigrew and Harv Knowles, as mentors to teachers new to Harkness pedagogy. Together, this dream team of Clements, Knowles, and Pettigrew represented over 162 years of teaching experience, the bulk of it, in Harkness classrooms. Clem was thrilled to return to New Hampshire, thrilled to be the eldest member of the Summer faculty. As he had for his entire career, Bob embraced his mentoring responsibilities with care, dedication, and a wonderfully wry sense of humor. Eric Bergofsky, director of the Exeter Mathematics Institute (EMI) at the time, recalls Bob enthusiastically being a member of a team of Exeter math teachers working with the Phoenix Public School teachers in the late 1990’s. Bob, now in his 70’s, taught his favorite probability course and was a big hit with the new generation of teachers half his age.
Visiting Bob In the community where he and Louise were living at the time, Joyce Kemp was not surprised to see Bob’s photographs of birds and travel locations adorning the hallways, and Bob himself preparing to give a talk that week to the residents. Always teaching, always entertaining, always learning.
He is survived by his daughter Joan Clements Francis, her ex-husband Greg Gilchrist, their children Sarah and Nate Gilchrist, Eleanor and John’s sons James and Sam Bellinger, great grandchildren Sophia, Louise, Evelyn, and Cameron Bellinger. The family on Bob’s brother Jim’s side remained close and active in his life until Bob’s death, including Jim’s widow Karen Clements, a nephew and his wife, Dan and Karen Clements, a grandnephew and his wife, James and Alex Clements, and one great-grandnephew, Griffen.
I move that this Memorial Minute be submitted to Bob’s daughter, Joan Clements Francis, and be spread upon the minutes of the faculty.
Respectfully submitted,
January 15, 2025
Joyce C. Kemp
Eric S. Bergofsky
Richard G. Brown
Stephanie Girard
Anthony W. Greene
Douglas G. Rogers
This Memorial Minute was first published in the summer 2025 issue of The Exeter Bulletin.