Everett Clark Mayo III — beloved husband, father, grandfather, scholar, mentor, golfer, and nationally recognized chess player—passed away peacefully at the age of 87. Born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1938, Clark claimed California as his home state since 1967. He was a quiet force of intellect and compassion. He lived a life shaped by books, ideas, and an abiding reverence for both literature and the human spirit.
His path to academic life was anything but ordinary. He supported himself through college and graduate school by working awide range of jobs: as a packer in a deviled ham factory, an efficiency expert in a sardine plant, a Chicago Transit Authority bus driver, and as an ordained minister in Congregational and Presbyterian churches. He also spent two formative years living in a commune in northern California—an experience that deepened his understanding of both community and spiritual inquiry.
Clark earned his B.A. in American Literature from Brown University in 1960, followed by a Master of Theology from Union Theological Seminary in New York City in 1963, with a concentration in Psychiatry and Religion. He went on to earn both an M.A. (1967) and Ph.D. (1971) from the University of Chicago, where his dissertation, The Fiction of Initiation, examined rites of passage in 1920’s American fiction, focusing on Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Faulkner, and Thomas Wolfe.
For 37 years, Professor Mayo taught English at California State University, San Bernardino, where his students encountered not just texts, but tools for life—guides for meaning, struggle, transformation, and beauty. He supported students in literature and the humanities—fields he believed could help shape not only a mind, but a soul. His students always appreciated the way Professor Mayo listened carefully without interruption, as if every word spoken might be a clue to something sacred.
Professor Mayo’s teaching centered on modern American fiction and American Romanticism, and his scholarly work was equally expansive. He published essays and articles on a wide range of American writers, including Hemingway, Faulkner, Fitzgerald, Emily Dickinson, and Ralph Waldo Emerson, as well as lesser-studied fantasy and science fiction authors. His book, The Gospel from Outer Space (or Yes, We Have No Nirvanas), offers a distinctive and imaginative analysis of Kurt Vonnegut, blending literary insight with spiritual wit.
Clark shared his life with Nancy Mayo, his loving wife and constant companion for 34 years. He is survived by his wife and four children—Jeff Oliva, Leslie Ewins, Shaune Mattsson and Diana LaPan—each of whom reflects his thoughtful nature and steady love. He is also survived by his brother Stephen Mayo of Hopkinton, Massachusetts. He was the deeply proud grandfather of eight grandchildren, who knew in him a man of depth and unwavering kindness. A private memorial will be held by the family.