Douglas Clarke was born in Reading, England, and received his musical training at Reading University and at Cambridge, where he earned B.A. and Mus. B. degrees. He practiced as an accompanist, and studied composition under Gustav Holst, Ralph Vaughan Williams and Charles Wood. In 1927, Clarke came to Winnipeg as conductor of the Philharmonic Society and the Winnipeg Male Choir. In 1929, he was appointed Director of the McGill University Conservatorium, and in 1930, Dean of the Faculty of Music. In the same year, Clarke was invited to be guest conductor of the newly formed Montréal Orchestra, and shortly thereafter was asked to become its permanent director. He held this post for more than a decade. Clarke also performed as a pianist and guest conductor, and published both vocal and instrumental works. He passed away in 1962.

Frank Clarke, a well known writer, and a pioneer in aptitude testing and in the field of vocational and industrial psychology, was born in 1882 in London, England. He left school at the age of twelve, and started to work as an office boy in the Editorial Department of the London Daily Mail receiving a good grounding in newspaper work. In 1908 he came to Montreal, where he was employed as a reporter and press photographer for the Montreal Star, then city editor, salesman and copy writer for the Montreal Witness. From 1915 to 1924 he worked as a life insurance salesman. He studied psychology in Dr. W.D. Tait’s Extension courses between 1926 and 1928, and he continued an informal association with both McGill and Dr. Tait. In 1944 and 1945 he gave a series of lectures in McGill’s Extension Program in Time and Motion Study. He also lectured Industrial Psychology at the University of Montreal. In 1953 he assisted Dr. Heinz Lehman and Dr. Herbert Dorken, Jr., in establishing norms for older people for the Verdun Projective Battery. He was also associated with Dr. Edward C. Webster and Dr. Bois between 1945 and 1950. Frank Clarke was a pioneer in informing the public, especially business men of the benefits to be gained through the use of psychology in the work place. He wrote many articles for newspapers and magazines on subjects such as vocational guidance and job analysis. His articles appeared regularly in Canadian Business and other professional and business magazines published in Canada, United States and Great Britain. He was an active member of professional associations, sponsored research at the Protestant Employment Bureau and was in demand as a public speaker. Frank Clarke reflected the spirit of service in his social and voluntary work. From 1914 to 1923 he was a social worker in the Canadian Patriotic Fund. In 1924 he also organized the Emergency Unemployment Relief Committee for the assistance of unemployed ex-soldiers and their families. In 1925 Clarke established the Protestant Employment Bureau in Montreal of which he was a manager until the Federal Unemployment Insurance started its employment service. In 1946 he conducted job analysis and job evaluation for R.C.A. Company Limited. In 1948 he opened his own office as employment counsel in industrial psychology. Randall Clarke died in 1955.

George Elliott Clarke was born on February 12, 1960, in Windsor, Nova Scotia, near the Black Loyalist and Afro-Métis community of Three Mile Plains, and grew up in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

He is a Canadian poet, playwright, literary critic, anthologist, and professor. He graduated from the University of Waterloo (B.A., 1984), Dalhousie University (M.A., 1989), and Queen's University (Ph.D., 1993). Clarke taught English and Canadian Studies at Duke University, North Carolina (1994-1999) and McGill University, Montreal (1998–1999). In 1999, he became a professor of English at the University of Toronto, where he teaches Canadian and African diasporic literature. Clarke has also served as a Noted Scholar at the University of British Columbia (2002) and the William Lyon Mackenzie King Visiting Professor in Canadian Studies at Harvard University (2013–1914). He was also a researcher for the Ontario Provincial Parliament (1982–1983), editor of the Imprint (the University of Waterloo, 1984–1985) and The Rap (Halifax, 1985–1987), a social worker for the Black United Front of Nova Scotia (1985–1986), parliamentary aide to Howard McCurdy (1987–1991), and newspaper columnist for the Halifax Daily News (1988–1989). He is the author of several poetry collections, e.g., "Saltwater Spirituals and Deeper Blues" (1983), "Lush Dreams, Blue Exile: Fugitive Poems 1978-1993" (1994), “Illuminated Verses” (2005), and “Black” (2006). His powerful opera “Beatrice Chancy” about slavery in Nova Scotia in the early 19th Century, with music by James Rolfe, has had many stage productions and a broadcast on CBC television since 1999. Clarke won the 2002 Governor General's Literary Award for poetry for his collection, "Execution Poems: The Black Acadian Tragedy of George and Rue" (2001). His many honours include several honorary doctorates, the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Achievement Award (2004), the $150,000 Pierre Elliott Trudeau Fellowship Prize (2006), and appointment to the Order of Nova Scotia (2006). In 2018, the George Elliott Clarke Scholarship Fund was established at Duke University.

John Mason Clarke was an American geologist and paleontologist. He was Professor of Geology and Mineralogy at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, as well as New York State Geologist.