Steve Clarke R.I.P

I had the genuine privilege of getting to know Steve through our time together on the CAST board and I'm so sad he's gone. I don't really know what to say as I'm struggling to get my thoughts together with this news. 

He was such a good guy, one of the best - always looking to bring people together, a true gentleman, and of course we shared a passion about our wonderful club - hopefully in good hands moving forward. His family are a wonderful reflection of the man, and my thoughts are with them right now. 

Steve, you'll be greatly missed. 

I would like to say some words about Steve to build on the wonderful tribute to him from Richard Wiseman on the Trust web. I knew Steve going back to Valley Party days, but like RW I only really got to know him in the Supporters Trust time, and Steve became someone I considered a very good friend. Good because of his many qualities as a human being, lifts to the Valley, offering to help my wife become a mediator, the generosity of spirit that everyone remarks upon. But also for what I discovered in these last few years, to my surprise and delight: that beneath the urbane, quietly spoken, clubbable exterior, and the search for practical middle ground solutions, a rebel heart was beating. When he finally decided that something was straight up wrong, Steve was ready to say so, to speak truth to power. So who is in the Olympic Stadium TV doc, looking and sounding proper alongside the flailing maniac in a daft gilet? That was Steve. Who was it who came up with me to the fans national meeting in Manchester, and when we found a few of them from FAPL clubs getting a bit too status quo, set about them with gusto? That was Steve.

I am struggling to process it all, like most who knew him. I just hope that Alex was able to whisper the news to him yesterday afternoon, and believe that he will have said to himself, "Oh well, job done, I'm out of here". Because that too, would be typical Steve. Rest in peace, my friend.