Sentinel business columnist passes away after heart attack

September 25th, 2006

Orlando Sentinel business columnist Susan Strother Clarke died this afternoon, one day after suffering a massive heart attack at her College Park home. She was 47. Clarke started working at the Sentinel in 1985, coming from the Gwinnet Daily News in Georgia. She held a variety of editing and reporting positions for the newspaper, and she became the Sentinel's business columnist in February 2003.

In the Sentinel newsroom, Clarke was known as a reporter who was always happy to help her colleagues and who had a deep love of journalism. She was also a fierce competitor. In late August, she was the first reporter in the state to break the story of the Burnham Institute selecting Orlando as its new home for medical research.

"Susan radiated energy and vitality," said Sentinel Editor Charlotte Hall.

"She loved her community and passionately believed that the journalist's role was to find the untold story and to serve the public. Susan was a superb reporter and a gifted writer. She generously shared her talents, mentoring and inspiring both young colleagues and her peers."

In an in-house questionnaire for the Sentinel, Clarke described the best part of her job as "asking tough questions," but wrote that her standards of success were to "work hard and wake up each morning with a clear conscience." She also noted, jokingly, that the best advice she had been given came from an editor at her first newspaper: "Stick with journalism. It's better than selling shoes."

She was married to Ken Clarke, who until last year was a copy editor in the Sentinel's features department. Asked by the Sentinel to name her most prized possession, she said "my wedding band." It was through her husband that she became a huge Gators sports fan, even though she did not attend the University of Florida.

In addition to attending UF events, Clarke was also actively involved in the Junior League.

Arrangements for her funeral have not yet been made.