Journalist Diane Clayton wrote,”Many people retire after spending a lifetime of intense and dangerous work and happily walk into the sunset, content to spend their days relaxing with a fishing pole or tending to their garden. Moraga’s Mark Clifford is not one of those people. A bundle of energy, it’s likely Clifford, a former Marine, retired police sergeant and current author, rarely sits still for any length of time (except, perhaps, when he’s writing his next book).”
Clifford retired in 2020 after 27 years as a San Leandro police officer, noting that he was extremely proud to have served that diverse community. Referring to his career as “colorful,” Clifford rose to sergeant’s rank and his assignments included being a police academy recruit training officer, a stolen vehicles investigator, serving on the SWAT team, and working undercover narcotics.
Being a police officer was the second career for Clifford, a man who admits to continually reinventing himself. Prior to that, the fourth generation San Franciscan and second in a family of seven children, served in the Marines for 10 years, rising to the rank of staff sergeant. He received special operations training with the 3rd Marine Division in Okinawa and was operating in the Philippines in 1991 during the historic Mount Pinatubo eruption. And this is when, perhaps unknowingly, Clifford began preparing for this third career: author.
Read on for Diane’s juicy scoop in the Lamorinda Weekly’s December 22, 2021
