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thedrifter
03-10-06, 07:05 AM
Remembering Clinton Dwight Sanders
By: ERIN SCHULTZ - Staff Writer

OCEANSIDE ---- To many, Clinton Dwight Sanders was a retired Marine, a community leader, an officer of the NAACP and a reverend.

To young Christopher Sanders, he was first and foremost Dad.

"My father is someone I look up to," a 12-year-old Christopher wrote in a school report about his father. "I hope one day I can make him proud of me and live on to be like him in my own special way."

Six years later, as Christopher finishes up his first year of Harvard, Sanders' wife is quite sure that sons Christopher and Clint Jr. --- as well as all the local young people whose lives Sanders touched in his 52 years ---- made Sanders proud.

"He was the No. 1 fan of his own children and of all the kids," Jennifer Sanders said of her husband, a loyal fan of his sons' Pop Warner games and a Kiwanis honoree for his work with youth. "There wasn't a child he didn't root for."

Clinton Dwight Sanders was born in 1953 in Perry, Ga., a quaint travelers' stop about halfway between Atlanta and the Florida state line. He had four brothers and four sisters, and joined the Marines when he was 18.

The service brought him to California, where he spent most of his time at Camp Pendleton and El Toro, with an occasional deployment to Okinawa, Japan.

It was in Oceanside where Sanders met Jennifer, who was studying at MiraCosta College. Sanders took night classes there, ostensibly working on an accounting degree. While he later got that degree from National University, his wife joked Thursday that at MiraCosta, "he was probably studying girls."

The couple married, and Sanders continued what would become a 20-year career in the Marine Corps. He was a drill instructor, a military police officer and one of the first Marines to work in the canine unit in Okinawa, said friend Elizabeth Oakley-Austin, whom family members said Sanders considered a sister.

The elder Clinton Sanders retired from the Marines in 1991, and walked almost directly into a job with the Employment Development Department, where he helped other retiring Marines find jobs in the civilian world.

Throughout his time in Oceanside, Sanders was involved with several community organizations. He was an officer and community outreach coordinator with the NAACP and a member of the Kiwanis club. In 2000, he became an ordained minister at Rising Star Missionary Baptist Church, where he taught Sunday school and Bible study.

"He felt his calling was to teach," Jennifer Sanders said.

Teaching wasn't the only thing that called Sanders, his wife said. There was almost always a carton of butter pecan ice cream in the freezer calling his name.

"There is still some left in there," she laughed. "It may stay there a while."

Sanders passed away Saturday. A viewing will be held Sunday at Eternal Hills Mortuary Chapel from 4 to 8 p.m. A service will be held at 1 p.m. Monday at the same location.

Contact staff writer Erin Schultz at (760) 739-6644 or eschultz@nctimes.com.

Ellie