Ten Years To Manhood

About the Book

This book covers the ten year period from 1940 to 1950 during which author Clarke Church grew from boyhood to young manhood. During these years Mr. Church transitioned through high school, the US Army, and college, and his memory of events is reinforced by quotations from the 106 letters which he wrote to his parents at home.
            Not only is this a story about one boy's experiences while coming of age, but it positions these experiences against a backdrop of dangerous and exciting times for our country and for the world - the end of the Great Depression, the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the ebb and flow of World War II in Europe and the Far East, and the early stages of the Cold War.
             Though written primarily for his family and descendents yet to come, the author hopes that his manuscript will stimulate pleasant memories of their formative years in other readers as well. 

About the Author

Allen Clarke Church, who wrote and compiled this history, spend his primary school years on the North Shore of Chicago, went through high school in suburban Philadelphia, and graduated from Darthmouth College in 1950 with a major in English Literature. He served in the United States Army during 1946-47 as a member of Task Force Williwaw in the Aleutian Islands. Following college, Clarke joined the Sales Department of The Procter and Gamble Company, and over the next 42 years worked in various sales management capacities in more than 50 countries around the world. His position at retirement from P&G was Vice President Sales for Canada and Latin America. During these years he and his family lived in Boston, Toronto, Brussels and Cincinnati. In 1952 Clarke Married Jane Dillman, a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, and together they have raised four sons, and are the proud grandparents of three boys and two girls. It is for these descendants, and those that follow, that this book has been written. Mr. Church and his wife now live in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and spend their winters in Very Beach, Florida.