karen clark

My background: I grew up as a reasonably normal child in Altadena, California with my two teacher parents and one big sister. I graduated from Stanford and received an MA in History (Modern Europe) from University of Washington, with the goal of teaching history at the community college level. That goal was thwarted when I found myself in the university town of Ann Arbor, Michigan, where my husband had taken a job as a professor. Ann Arbor is a town overrun with over-educated people eager to teach, so all I could manage was a part-time community college teaching job. I finally decided I needed a new career, so I was off to Michigan Law School which led me to my true desire, a return to California. My Career: After law school, I became an attorney at the international law firm of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP in its Orange County office, specializing in business and real estate transactions and financing. After 25 years with the firm, I retired as a partner in the early 2000s. My Adventures: It was after I retired that my second and more rewarding life began. On a trip to Turkey, my husband and I decided that, when we retired, we would buy a boat in the Mediterranean and spend a few years cruising. It took a tremendous leap of faith to fly to Spain to look for a small boat to buy, but we did it. The anticipated adventure of a year or two in the Mediterranean morphed into eight years - just the two of us plus our trusty dog, Roka - cruising from Spain to Eastern Turkey and back, through France, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Greece, Turkey and North Cyprus. I wrote a book about it, Mediterranean Summers: How a Man, a Woman and a Dog Spent Eight Summers Exploring the Ancient Sea in a Small Boat, plus many magazine and newspaper articles, and spoken to many groups about our adventure. We later bought a different boat on the U.S. east coast and my husband and I and Roka spent an additional three years cruising from Maine to Key West. Writing: In addition to my book on our Mediterranean adventure, I have also written a biography of Bill Clinton, published by Nova Science Publishers as part of a series of presidential biographies. Other Interests: In addition to my career, writing and my boating adventures, I'm generally obsessed with politics - I have been on the board of directors of Women in Leadership - a bi-partisan PAC supporting pro-choice women candidates - for 25 years. I have also served on many non-profit boards, currently the Newport Beach Public Library Foundation (vice-chair) and the Southern California Council on Aging. I have previously sat on the boards of the local Planned Parenthood affiliate, and non-profits supporting abused women, women with addiction problems and education. For hobbies, I've always loved skiing. I started playing soccer just before my 50th birthday and was team captain for over 10 years of a competitive soccer team that played in the local Newport Beach soccer league. I also love independent travel - no tours for me, thanks. In just the past 3 years, I've visited China, India, Bhutan, Cambodia, Thailand, Cuba, Antarctica, Chile, Colombia, France, Spain, Turkey, Georgia, Rwanda, Botswana and South Africa. I'm also obsessed with gardening, reading (3 book groups) and working out. But my greatest love is my four amazing grandchildren, ages 2 to 11.