{{short description|Canadian businessman}} {{For|those of a similar name|Larry Clark (disambiguation)|Lawrence Clarke (disambiguation)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=February 2021}}
'''Larry Denman Clarke''' (June 12, 1925 – October 22, 2015) was a Canadian businessman and the founder, president, chief executive officer, and chairman of SPAR Aerospace Limited, the designer of the Canadarm.<ref>{{Cite news|title=New China Hand for the Space Age|last=Brem|first=Maxwell|journal=Asia Pacific Business|volume=4|issue=3|date=Jun 1988| via=ProQuest |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/200307392?sourcetype=Trade%20Journals |access-date=2025-03-23|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Agency |first=Canadian Space |date=2006-11-08 |title=About Canadarm |url=https://www.asc-csa.gc.ca/eng/canadarm/about.asp |access-date=2025-03-23 |website=Canadian Space Agency}}</ref> He is a founding Director of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, and from 1987 to 1991, was the Chancellor of York University.
==Biography== Clarke was born in London to Edward Denman Clarke and Audrey Rant in 1925 and moved to Canada in 1939 after attending Eton College. After graduating from Trinity College School and serving as a Technician in the Royal Canadian Navy during the second world war, he earned a law degree from Osgoode Hall Law School in 1949. He later worked in the Canadian Department of Defense and at de Havilland Aircraft before founding SPAR Aerospace and leading its acquisition from de Havilland in 1967.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/thestar/obituary.aspx?pid=176207267|title=LARRY DENMAN CLARKE|last=|first=|date=|website=Legacy.com|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=}}</ref>
In 1988, Clarke was made an Officer of the Order of Canada, and in 2004 he was awarded the Canadian Space Agency's Chapman Award for 2004 for "his remarkable contribution to the advancement of the Canadian Space Program".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.asc-csa.gc.ca/eng/events/2014/jhchapman-winners.asp|title=CSA - John H. Chapman Award of Excellence|year=2014|publisher=Canadian Space Agency|accessdate=August 11, 2014|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140811090030/http://www.asc-csa.gc.ca/eng/events/2014/jhchapman-winners.asp|archivedate=August 11, 2014}}</ref>
Clarke died on October 22, 2015, in West Vancouver.<ref>{{cite web|title=Larry D Clarke|url=http://obits.dignitymemorial.com/dignity-memorial/obituary.aspx?n=Larry-Clarke&lc=3749&pid=176202833&mid=6645481|publisher=Dignity Memorial|accessdate=November 28, 2017}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}}
{{s-start}} {{s-aca}} {{succession box|before=John Tuzo Wilson|title=Chancellor of York University|years=1986–1991|after=Oscar Peterson}} {{s-end}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Clarke, Larry}} Category:1925 births Category:2015 deaths Category:Canadian businesspeople Category:Chancellors of York University Category:Officers of the Order of Canada Category:Osgoode Hall Law School alumni Category:Canadian lawyers Category:People educated at Eton College
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