An Account of Oakland County / edited by Lillian Drake Avery.

PERSONAL SKETCHES

169

headquarters at Royal Oak, where he conducts his business under
the title of the Startup Realty Company, with office at 1629 Woodward
avenue. Mr. Churchill was born in Monroe county, Michigan, June
12, 1890, and is a son of Walter C. and Laur (Lewis) Churchill, who
now reside at Clarkston, Oakland county, this state. The subject of
this review was a child at the time of the family removal to the
province of Ontario, Canada, where the public schools afforded him
his youthful education and where also he learned the trade of toolmaking, to which he gave his attention for some time. Later he there
served as a road superintendent, with headquarters at Windsor, and
his residence in Ontario was continued until he returned to his
native state. In 1920 Mr. Churchill established him residence at Royal
Oak, where he has since been engaged in the real estate business and
where his well directed activities have had important bearing on
progressive development in this favored district of Oakland county.
That he has won prestige and success in his chosen sphere of business
and also a place of popularity in his home community is indicated
by his having held continuously since 1923 the dual office of secretary
and treasurer and now vice-president of the Royal Oak Real Estate
Board. The basic Masonic affiliation of Mr. Churchill is with Blue
Lodge No. 403 in the city of Windsor, Ontario, and at Royal Oak he
has membership in the chapter of Royal Arch Masons, and lodge
No. 45 of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He and his wife
are communicants of the Protestant Episcopal church, and their attractive home, at 1615 Mayfield Drive, in the Vinsetta Park district
of Royal Oak, is a center of generous hospitality. November 8,
1923, was the date on which was solemnized the marriage of Mr.
Churchill to Mrs. E. Jenness (Beaudry) Startup, of Royal Oak, she
having been born and reared in Detroit and being a daughter of A.
and Delia (Spencer) Beaudry of that city.
Rollin W. Clark is the director of finance of the city of Pontiac.
As such he is charged with serious responsibilities, but the proponents
of the commission-manager type of charter stoutly contend that under
such form there is a distribution of responsibility and a protective
balance that does not obtain in the decentralized, or federal, form of
city government. Rollin W. Clark was born in Waterford village,
Oakland county, Michigan, in 1879, the son of Washington E. and
Eliza M. (Keeler) Clark, both natives of the same county. Grandparents on both sides were early settlers of Oakland county and the
paternal great-grandfather, Jeremiah Clark, who was the founder of
Clarkston, Oakland county. He fought in the Revolution and is
buried in Clarkston. Washington E. Clark was a stock buyer. He
is deceased. Rollin W. attended local schools and in 1900 was graduated from the Pontiac high school. He later attended a business
college and became a public accountant. He taught commercial subjects in Michigan Military Academy and was associated with the
Heitsch Construction Company and in 1921 became director of finance
of Pontiac. His splendid training has made Mr. Clark a valuable
public servant. Mr. Clark was married to Miss Grace E. Reid, of