Tom Clancy
Thomas Leo Clancy Jr. (April 12, 1947 – October 1, 2013) was an American novelist. He is best known for his technically detailed espionage and military-science storylines set during and after the Cold War. Seventeen of his novels have been bestsellers and more than 100 million copies of his books have been sold.[1] His name was also used on screenplays written by ghostwriters, nonfiction books on military subjects occasionally with co-authors, and video games. He was a part-owner of his hometown Major League Baseball team, the Baltimore Orioles, and vice-chairman of their community activities and public affairs committees.
For other people with similar names, see Thomas Clancy.
Tom Clancy
October 1, 2013 (aged 66)
Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.
Novelist
1982–2013
5
Originally an insurance agent, Clancy launched his literary career in 1984 when he sold his first military thriller novel The Hunt for Red October for $5,000 published by the small academic Naval Institute Press of Annapolis, Maryland.[1][2] His works The Hunt for Red October (1984), Patriot Games (1987), Clear and Present Danger (1989), and The Sum of All Fears (1991) have been turned into commercially successful films. Tom Clancy's works also inspired games such as the Ghost Recon, Rainbow Six, The Division, and Splinter Cell series. Since Clancy's death in 2013,[3] the Jack Ryan series has been continued by his family estate through a series of authors.
Early life and education[edit]
Clancy was born on April 12, 1947, at Franklin Square Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland,[4] and grew up in the Northwood neighborhood in northeast Baltimore.[2][4][5] The family was Irish-American.[6] He was the second of three children to Thomas Leo Clancy (1918–1995), who worked for the United States Postal Service, and Catherine Mary Clancy (née Langan; 1918–2001), who worked in a store's credit department.[7][8] He was a member of Troop 624 of the Boy Scouts of America.[9] Clancy's siblings are Patrick and Margaret.
Clancy's mother worked to send him to Loyola High School in Towson, Maryland, a private Catholic secondary school taught by the Jesuit religious order (Society of Jesus). He graduated from Loyola High School in 1965.[4][5][7] He then attended the associated Loyola College (now Loyola University Maryland) in Baltimore. Clancy began his college career as a physics major. Due to poor grades, he later changed his concentration to English since, "...it was an easy major." Despite the academic change, he continued to be an indifferent student spending a majority of his time reading books on military and naval history instead of tending to his studies. Clancy graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature in 1969 receiving a 1.9/4.0 GPA.[4][8] While at Loyola College, he was president of the chess club.[7] He joined the Army Reserve Officers' Training Corps; however, he was ineligible to serve due to his myopia (nearsightedness), which required him to wear thick eyeglasses.[1][7]
After graduating, Clancy earned certifications in business and insurance and worked for an insurance company in Hartford, Connecticut.[10]
In 1973, Clancy joined the O. F. Bowen Agency, a small insurance agency based in Owings, Maryland, founded by his wife's grandfather.[1][7][8][10] In 1980, he purchased the insurance agency from his wife's grandmother and wrote novels in his spare time.[8][11] While working at the insurance agency, he wrote his debut novel, The Hunt for Red October (1984).[1]
Political views[edit]
A long-time proponent of conservative and Republican views, Clancy dedicated books to American conservative political figures, including Ronald Reagan. A week after the September 11 attacks, Clancy suggested on The O'Reilly Factor that American left-wing politicians were partly responsible for the failure to prevent the attacks due to their "gutting" of the Central Intelligence Agency.[27][28]
On September 11, 2001, Clancy was interviewed by Judy Woodruff on CNN.[29] During the interview, he noted that orthodox "Islam does not permit suicide." Among other observations during this interview, Clancy cited discussions he had with military experts on the lack of planning to deal with a hijacked plane being used in a suicide attack and criticized the news media's treatment of the United States Intelligence Community. Clancy appeared again on PBS's Charlie Rose, to discuss the implications of the day's events with Richard Holbrooke, New York Times journalist Judith Miller, and Senator John Edwards, among others.[30] Clancy was interviewed on those shows because his book Debt of Honor[31] (1994) included a scenario wherein a disgruntled Japanese airline pilot crashes a fueled Boeing 747 into the U.S. Capitol dome during an address by the President to a joint session of Congress, killing the President and most of Congress. In the book, Clancy also implies that Japan's prosperity is due primarily to unequal trading terms.[32] In the book's sequel Executive Orders (1996), the president announces a new foreign policy doctrine, under which the United States will hold personally accountable any foreign leader who orders attacks on U.S. citizens, territory, or possessions in the future.[33]
Numerous scholars have examined the political dimensions of Clancy's books, especially in the context of the Cold War. Historian Walter Hixson has argued that Clancy's novels, especially The Hunt for Red October and Red Storm Rising, were "popular representations of Reagan-era Cold War values. They reflect both popular perceptions of Soviet behavior and the predominant national security values of the Reagan era."[34]
Death[edit]
Clancy died of heart failure on October 1, 2013,[3] at Johns Hopkins Hospital, near his Baltimore home. John D. Gresham, a co-author and researcher with Clancy on several books, said Clancy had been suffering heart problems for some time prior: "Five or six years ago Tom suffered a heart attack and he went through bypass surgery. It wasn't that he had another heart attack, his heart just wore out."[50]
The Chicago Tribune quoted Pulitzer Prize–winning film critic and author Stephen Hunter as saying, "When he published The Hunt for Red October, he redefined and expanded the genre, and as a consequence of that, many people were able to publish such books who had previously been unable to do so."[51]
On March 31, 2014, the Orioles honored Clancy with a video tribute during their home opener, and the team wore a tribute patch on their jerseys through the season.[52]
