http://www.thepolypost.com/story.php?story=2072 Cal State Polytechnic POST Music Professor Passes After Battle With Cancer BY JANA RAE CORPUZ 2004-11-02 Phillip Clarke Cal Poly Pomona piano professor Philip Clarke, whose teaching influenced students not only musically but spiritually, died in his Upland home Oct. 16 after a long battle with cancer. "Of all things I value from my experiences with Dr. Clarke, expressing the immortal world through music stands prominent," said music senior Joon Kang. "Answering questions around life, death and how all things expressed in music relate to the unseen world enlightened me. He emphasized the things beyond mere notes, rests and phrases. " At the age of 61, Clarke died with family members around him. He is survived by wife, Bobbi, and daughters Heather and Catherine. The Todd Memorial Chapel was filled on Saturday in Pomona, where family, friends, and students came to pay respect at his memorial service. In lieu of flowers, the music department accepted donations for the Phillip Clarke Memorial Scholarship awarded to a piano student based on an audition. Although Clarke was sick, he still continued to teach in June, but stopped in August when he became too ill to continue. "He was someone so full of life that he even danced at his daughter's wedding in August. He endured radiation treatment to travel all the way to Pennsylvania to attend [the wedding]," said longtime friend and Cal Poly music accompanist Janet Knoll. Clarke taught at Cal Poly for 22 years. He received his bachelor's and master's degree in piano performance from Peabody Conservatory and later earned his musical arts doctoral degree from Johns Hopkins University. He also studied under prestigious musicians such as Walter Hautzig, Konrad Wolff and Leon Fleisher. He left a large collection of piano sheet music to the Music Department taking up two shelves of mostly western European classical and method books he collected over his life. Clarke was known for raising money for student scholarships over the past two decades. Along with liberal studies professor and violinist Donald Ambroson, Clarke raised more than $10,000 through Duo Concertante recitals. The funding established the first endowed Music Department scholarship. Five years ago he also established a benefit concert to raise money strictly for piano students. In addition to aiding students on a large scale, his teaching methods left significant impressions in the minds of students and colleagues. "He was not locked in nor a method teacher. He was very responsive to students' needs. One of the things he would always say was, 'We bring everything we know, and every place we've been, to that endeavor,'" said Knoll. Along with being responsive to student needs, he was able to see every aspect of learning a piece of music and taught others to see these aspects. "He had an unusual ability to look at things from many different angles: technical, self-expressive, composer, world history, spiritual emotional and mental views," said Knoll. "He was really committed to being encouraging and supportive of students. He was much more involved with feeling the music," she said. Besides being an amazing teacher, Clarke was known for his warm-heartedness, encouragement, approachability and vast amounts of knowledge on various topics such as coffee. Having known Clarke for 26 years, Knoll never saw him angry and said he knew more about hundreds of topics than anyone she ever met. "He especially knew a lot about the Civil War and coffee," said Knoll. "In his office he had a dozen coffee mugs, two grinders and two electric pots." Being a talkative and knowledgeable person--according to students--this sometimes got in the way of teaching. "When he would teach, he would stray off subject and the challenge would be to redirect him back to the original topic," said Kang. "A lot of people complained about it, but it was one of my favorite things about him, because it influenced me to study harder and become more knowledgeable like he was." Besides being what former student, Sisilia Ong described as a "walking library," Clarke was more than just a teacher to her. "He was like my music father. I only had him when I came to the [United] States from Indonesia," said Ong. "It was quite intimidating being an international student to talk to professors, but he was very approachable and easygoing." Ong graduated from Cal Poly as a music student in 2001. She came here as an international student in 1997 and had trouble deciding her career path, until Clarke took her under his wing. Since then, Ong went to Clarke for advice. "He was always there when I needed help, and when I found out he had passed away I felt lost," said Ong with eyes swelling with tears. "In a way, I was expecting his death although it was still shocking because I didn't want him to go. But I was happy at the same time because I knew he was suffering." The day after she discovered his passing, weeping she wrote a song filled with beautiful melodic sounds of sorrow and joy called "Letting Go," as last words to him. "You changed my life; gave direction. You taught me love of music," sang Ong. "The sweet memory of you will stay. You are precious to me. Goodbye is the saddest word."