Lead Stories

Howard Campbell, Gleaner Writer

Horace Clarke, a stalwart politician and former government minister, died on Saturday at the Andrews Memorial Hospital in St Andrew. He was 75 years old.

Dr Morais Guy, who succeeded Clarke as member of parliament for Central St Mary in 2002, told The Gleaner that Clarke had suffered a stroke on July 2 and had been hospitalised since.

Yesterday, People's National Party (PNP) President Portia Simpson Miller paid tribute to Clarke.

"I am deeply saddened at the news of Horace's passing. Horace devoted his life in service to the people of St Mary and the country as a whole.

"I will personally miss him and extend condolences to his wife, Norma, his children, grandchildren and other relatives," Simpson Miller said in a statement.

Pivotal roll

Clarke was a pivotal figure for the PNP which he first represented in Parliament in 1972 when the party, led by Michael Manley, swept to power with victory over the incumbent Jamaica Labour Party (JLP).

Clarke was MP for North St Mary, West Central St Mary and Central St Mary.

But for a six-year period (1983-89), he was never out of the House of Representatives, winning every poll he contested in general elections.

The PNP refused to contest a snap election called by Prime Minister Edward Seaga in 1983 and was out of Parliament for six years.

When the PNP won the 1989 election, Clarke was made minister of agriculture. After Manley resigned because of failing health in 1992, P.J. Patterson became prime minister and Clarke was appointed mining and energy minister, then transport minister.

Just before the 2002 election, Clarke announced that he was retiring from politics. His place in Central St Mary was taken by Guy, a medical doctor who is also his cousin.

Guy said Clarke made a significant national impact.

"He wasn't just a St Mary man. Horace saw Jamaica for what it ought to be. He had so much time for young people," Guy said.

Born in the district of Belfield, St Mary, Clarke was one of several effective grass-roots politicians who came to prominence under Manley.

Others included Seymour Mullings, Derrick Heaven, Ralph Brown, Terry Gillette and Harry Douglas.

He was a senior accountant at the Jamaica Telephone Company when he ran on the 1972 PNP ticket. Clarke won handily over the JLP's Wycliffe Martin and repeated that success in the 1976 election.

In the 1980 election which the JLP won by 51 seats to the PNP's nine, Clarke was one of the winners in a disastrous campaign for the ruling party.

Guy said Clarke made his mark in St Mary by helping to establish low-income housing schemes at Tryall and Frontier Heights in Port Maria, and Stockholm Park in Highgate.

He said Clarke also played a major role in helping small farmers in St Mary acquire land to produce bananas and sugar cane, the parish's staple crops.

In July 2008, Clarke and his American colleague Michael Drakulich launched the Mystic Mountain amusement park.

He is survived by wife Norma and two sons.