Clifford Merrill Lindsey

1931 - 2002

Clifford Merrill Lindsey, better know to most of us as Cliff, died at the Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, Washington on Sunday September 8, 2002.

Cliff Lindsey is survived by his wife, the former Virginia Jane Caspersen of Seattle, Washington whom he married in Seattle on June 3, 1962. Surviving children, of a previous marriage, are Cliff Jr., Susan and Eric. Grandchildren are Amber, Hunter and Micah.

Cliff Lindsey was born and raised in San Jose, California. He graduated from San Jose State with a BA in Business Administration. Upon graduation he was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in the US Air Force. He had an exciting active duty assignment in the Strategy Air Command, as his base received the first B-52s. He later entered reserve status. During this time, he was assigned by the Air Force Reserve to the USAF Office of Special Investigations which was the only military reserve group carrying active duty ID credentials. After eight more years he was appointed commander of the San Francisco USAF Public Affairs reserve unit, a position he held until he achieved retirement as a Lt. Col.

After his active duty with the USAF, Cliff went to work for IBM in Office Product sales, and achieved several 100% Clubs. Cliff had a successful sales, product management, and marketing career in the computer products and related technology field, but his real desire was to become a professional market researcher and a corporate officer of a substantial company.

Cliff became Dataquest’s expert on office automation, which took him on numerous trips to Europe and Asia. Besides researching, publishing, and consulting, the job included producing a large customer conference each year and keynoting it with the annual update of five-year forecasts. He also spoke at many other Dataquest and industry conferences and was constantly quoted in the press. His last five years there, he pioneered a special program (Strategic Executive Service) for high tech CEOs. This became highly successful and he had the opportunity to work with many notable executives from around the world. One of those executives took Cliff as a consultant on a Moscow business trip shortly before the changes in Russia. It was a great personal benefit for him to meet many top industrial leaders in Russia under the old system. It was especially interesting for him because he had taught classes on communism, at one time, in the Air Force. This all led to Cliff becoming an expert on the Russian market for Dataquest. Cliff retired from Dataquest in late 1989.

After many years in California, Cliff and Virginia eventually moved to the Seattle, Washington area. In addition to 12 years in Rotary International, the two had many interests in their retirement life together. Among them: people! overseas travel, visiting former Rotary exchange students, grandchildren, cooking, continuing community work as they did in California, music and theater, operating a two unit B&B, both running 3 miles, 5 to 6 days a week (for a total of 32 years and well over 24,000 miles each), personal computers and the Internet , genealogy of their four family lines, BMW cars, San Francisco 49ers, track and field, and living a healthy lifestyle. Oh yes, and Cliff said it all started when he was five years old and sold holiday season lacquered gourds door to door from his little red wagon for his grandfather!

Cliff Lindsey, always ready to face the next frontier, was one of the first twenty-one participants in the historic Lindsay Surname DNA Project. Cliff is a part of DNA Group 8 and of the R1b (deep ancestry) haplogroup. He was descended from the Lindsey lineage of James Lindsey of Virginia. Cliff was, without doubt, very proud of his Scottish Lindsey heritage.

Our most sincere sympathies go to his wife, Virginia, his children Cliff Jr., Susan, and Eric and his grandchildren Amber, Hunter and Micah.

May you rest in peace Clifford Merrill Lindsey. You left your mark with us.

The "Amazing Grace" MIDI file, sequenced by Barry Taylor, is featured on this web page.

Flower of the Forest

Clifford Merrill Lindsey