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09/20/2017 08:30 AMMark Clifton had a busy day at the Killingworth 350th Anniversary Celebration on Sept. 2. He was up at 1 a.m. to paint over the rust spots on the antique tractor that he then drove in the parade, pulling a wagon of Killingworth Ambulance Association (KAA) volunteers.
At the Town Picnic, he was just relaxing with his family when he was called up to the stage with a group of local volunteers. It was all part of the plan: Before a crowd of his friends and neighbors, Mark was named Killingworth’s Citizen of the Year.
“It was a huge surprise to me! My family all knew—my wife, my daughter and her fiancé, my son and his wife. Half the town knew, but I had no idea,” he laughs.
To all who know Mark—and there’s not many people in Killingworth who don’t—it’s no surprise at all.
Mark is the ranger at Deer Lake, the picturesque camp at the end of Papermill Road that brings boy scouts, school students, and corporate groups from all over New England to the woods of Killingworth. It’s been Mark’s home for 39 years and the place he met his wife, Patty.
“She used to go jogging through camp and we’d say, ‘Hello.’ At first, she called me Chris,” he laughs. “I’d just bang my hammer and say under the breath, ‘It’s Mark not Chris.’
“We got to talking and it all worked out,” he notes.
Indeed, it did. Mark and Patty will celebrate 40 years at Deer Lake next April, the place they called home for their son, Forrest, and daughter, Hillary.
“It was a great place to raise a family,” he says. “Hillary was the waterfront director here and the docks are still out on the lake this year, because she will be getting married on the lake in October.”
The woods of Killingworth are a far cry from where Mark grew up in suburban New York. Mark’s mother moved the family to Madison when he was a teenager (he’s one of five children). He graduated from Southern Connecticut State University with a major in earth sciences and was working as a tradesperson and a youth worker when the opportunity arose to move to Deer Lake.
“They were looking for someone to be on the property and my experience blended well. I was working as a carpenter, framer, and roofer, so I had the technical skills to take care of the property. I was also working with incarcerated youth—serious juvenile offenders—at the Long Lane School in Middletown. So, I guess you could say that I was working with boy scouts—and not boy scouts,” he says.
“In 1978, I moved on site and was a volunteer ranger until it became a full-time job and I’ve been doing it for 35 years,” he says. “One of the things I’m most proud of is that we were able to restore the original buildings. When I arrived, the house and the barn were literally caving in, so I got help from a great group of local tradespeople, and we had a Navy battalion...that would come one weekend a month and work on a project. Slowly, we built it up. We put on new roofs and rebuilt the barn, and restored the house. We kept its old New England flavor.”
“When I arrived there was a plan to raze these buildings to the ground,” he says. “I truly believe that if the original buildings had been knocked down, then the property was destined to be sold and developed.”
Through it all, the boy scouts, girl scouts, 4H clubs, private and public schools, and college groups, have kept coming back to Deer Lake year after year. Mark says that life has changed over the decades, but new technology cannot replace the great outdoors.
“Kids don’t become scouts for merit badges. They do it for the fun stuff: camping, canoeing, rock climbing, outdoor challenges. Every weekend we have a couple of hundred kids here with their scout masters; they camp out and cook over the open fire, the whole deal,” he says.
“We teach youth to be independent, and to trust each other. Here, in the outdoors, they do it all.”
The boy scouts have played an important role in Mark’s life. He was active in a troop in New York and become a senior patrol leader in Madison, before completing the Eagle Scout program.
“My dad died when I was 15 and I could have gone another way. I could have become a hooligan—well, more of a hooligan than I was,” he smiles. “Scouts kept me grounded. There’s a strict code of conduct that I followed. In fact, if more people followed that code, the world would be a better place.”
As Killingworth Citizen of the Year, Mark was honored for his many decades of community service, including several years on the town’s Municipal Land Use Committee. His 35-year commitment on the Board of Directors of the Killingworth Ambulance Association, including terms as president and chief of service, started out simply.
“There were a few incidences at camp that I didn’t feel qualified to deal and it inspired me to do the EMT [emergency medical technician] course. I thought I’d better practice my skills or I’d lose them, so I signed up.”
Mark has responded to calls at all hours of the day and night for almost four decades, and he says the reward is the appreciation of the residents.
“In a small community, it’s about neighbors helping neighbors. When I get a call at my end of town, I grab my stuff and go, while my partner grabs the truck and meets me there, and vice versa. It’s a team effort—and I’m in fine company,” he says.
Mark believes that community service is a value that’s nurtured at home.
“It’s important to recognize the spouses of our volunteers. There’s no schedule—you get the call and you just go. Doing these jobs has an impact at home and I think we should recognize their efforts,” he says.
“I’ve always been inspired by my parents who were very active in the community. They were always doing something for other people. For them it was a way of life, it was effortless. They really were the greatest generation.”
For Mark, the Town Parade at the Killingworth 350th Anniversary Celebration was a special event.
“I was pulling the hay wagon with the ambulance volunteers and the street was lined with people cheering and yelling ‘Thank you.’ I’d never heard appreciation like that. It was great.”
It’s a sentiment echoed by the people of Killingworth for their new Citizen of the Year, according to First Selectmen Cathy Iino.
“Mark Clifton’s middle name is ‘service.’ On any issue that comes up, Mark focuses on the implications for those who need service, and especially, on those whose lives are hardest,” she says. “It’s never about the convenience or the glory of the providers. For Mark, it’s entirely about helping others, and teaching others how to live by the same values.”