Stella Rosemary King – Tess to her family and friends – was born in Glasgow in 1932, and her parents’ commitment to social causes proved a strong influence on their daughter’s life and career. After her family moved to South West England, she attended Cheltenham Ladies College, then studied economics at Trinity College Dublin, but left after two years to marry Charles Clarke, a Bristol solicitor who later became senior partner of Osborne Clarke. The first of their five children was born a year later.
At the age of 23 Stella stood successfully for the Long Ashton Rural District Council as an independent candidate and served there for 21 years, in several roles including Chair of the Council and of its housing and public health committees. This led to a long-term commitment to public housing: in the mid-1960s she was instrumental in establishing one of the first women’s refuges in St Paul’s. Her resulting links with the area bore further fruit in the early 1980s when she helped to launch Zenzele, a successful self-build project supported by the City Council and the Bristol and West Building Society that trained homeless and unemployed young people to build their own homes.
Alongside such trailblazing work, Stella sat on the boards of several housing associations and was a member of the Housing Corporation between 1988 and 1995. When she was awarded a CBE, the citation read ‘for services to housing and the community’.
Her public roles over the course of a tremendously busy career included 34 years (beginning in 1968) as a Bristol magistrate, with five years as Chair of the Bristol Bench; a term as a governor of the BBC; and membership of the Board of the Bristol Development Corporation and the National Lottery Charities Board. She also served as Vice Lord-Lieutenant and Deputy Lieutenant of Bristol. As ever, she fulfilled these official duties alongside her campaigning for issues close to her heart. For example, when the Theatre Royal, Bath was threatened with closure, she and her husband intervened to save and restore the theatre.
In 1982 Stella first began her involvement in the life of the University; in that year she became a member of Council, the University’s highest governing body, and was appointed to its Chair in 1985, a position she held until 1997. She then served as Pro-Chancellor for 10 years. In 1996, in recognition of her outstanding service, the University conferred on her the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws. The public orator on that occasion, Professor Peter Haggett (who passed away in 2025), described the importance of the Chair’s role: 'no post is more critical, more demanding of time and energy, and contributes more to the success of the University'.
The skills and experience Stella acquired during her time in local politics served her well in her work at Bristol; resolutely impartial, she tackled every problem on its merits and refused to be swayed. Underlying her approach, in the words of Professor Haggett, was 'courage and a willingness to accept challenges'.
The 1980s provided plenty of challenges in academia, with significant growth in the sector but a steady reduction in government funding and several Acts of Parliament that brought wide-ranging changes. As Chair of Council at Bristol, Stella took a key role in guiding the University through this turbulent period. To quote Professor Haggett again, she 'never sought easy routes or routine solutions' and had an instinct for 'taking responsibility and squarely facing up to a crisis'.
At the same time, while the city developed a new vibrancy, Stella recognised that the University had a vital role to play in stimulating and supporting local initiatives, whether through partnerships, collaboration or personal links between staff and the community. She herself took an active role, with Professor Richard Gregory, in setting up the Exploratory, an interactive science museum that evolved into @Bristol and is now known as We the Curious.
Having stepped down as Chair of Council in 1997, Stella became a Pro-Chancellor, and her energetic contributions to the University’s affairs continued for another decade. When, in 2008, the University bestowed its highest honour on her – an Honorary Fellowship – the oration was delivered by an incoming Pro-Chancellor, Sir James Tidmarsh, who described her as 'a remarkable woman' with a lifelong philosophy of 'helping to make things happen'.
Sir James also singled out Stella’s 'wonderful sense of humour and fun' and her 'great compassion’, and he concluded: 'Stella Clarke has been a wonderful servant to an enormous range of interests and people, and particularly to this University'.
The University of Bristol indeed owes Dr Stella Clarke a debt of gratitude, and we send our heartfelt condolences to her five children, 12 grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren.