Harold Glenn Clarkston arrived on the Cumberland campus in the fall of 1954 from Covington, Kentucky where he excelled in basketball and baseball for Simon Kenton High School. He was later enshrined into the Simon Kenton Athletic Hall of Fame. Clarkston continued to participate as a dual sport athlete at Cumberland in baseball and basketball under Coach Bill Ross.
During his freshman year, Clarkston averaged 19.1 points per game and as a sophomore he averaged just over 20 points per contest which led his teams both years. He was the only player to make the 1st team all Southeastern United States Junior College Tournament during those years. He also made 1st team KIAC All-Tournament in 1955-1956 and at graduation, Clarkston was named Best Male Scholar Athlete.
Clarkston earned the Associates of Arts Degree from Cumberland College, a member of the Kentucky Junior Colleges. (Cumberland would return to a senior college status in 1960.) So, in the fall of 1956 he accepted a basketball scholarship at nearby Union College where in January of 1959, he finished with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Teacher Education. He also earned the Masters Degree in Education from Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Upon leaving Union, he was hired as the head baseball coach at Cumberland High School. Glenn also taught at the junior high school in Harlan, Kentucky. In 1962 he moved to Spingboro, Ohio and taught while being an assistant basketball coach for five years, and he played AAU basketball for three of those years.
In 1967 he moved to Amelia, Ohio and coached basketball, track, and cross-country at Anderson Junior High and Turpin High School for a span of twenty years. In 1982, Mr. Clarkston was awarded the Turpin High School Coach of the Year in Track and Cross Country. In 1990, he was inducted into the Simon Kenton High School Athltic Hall of Fame. He retired from the Forest Hills School District in 1987.
He has served two terms on the Alumni Board of Directors at Cumberland where he influenced many Ohio students to choose the school for their education. Two of the students he influenced to enroll at Cumberland were his daughters, Cheryl Clarkston, Class of 1983, and Kendra Clarkston Perry, Class of 1988.
In the 1992, his wife of 36 years, Sonya Clarkston passed away. He has been married to the former, Edna Scott, for the past 14 years. Mr. Clarkston has two daughters, Cheryl and Kendra; two stepsons, and five grandchildren. Today, Mr. Clarkston continues to drive charter and tour buses; an activity he started in 1989. He has traveled in all fifty states and Canada.
