Clare Partridge Fieldhouse

Clare Partridge Fieldhouse, 94, passed away on June 20, 2023 in McLean, Virginia as a result of advanced dementia and congestive heart failure.

Born in West Point, New York on October 27, 1928 to Richard Clare Partridge, (U.S. Army Major General) and Margaret Barton Partridge, Clare had an older sister, Margaret B. McDougall, with whom she gathered many fond memories of their frequent moves to U.S. Army bases and locations around the world as their father rose through the ranks of the Army.  They spent an exciting year in Berlin in 1938 – 1939 where their father was the assistant military attaché before being evacuated with their mother to Denmark following the German invasion of Poland in September 1939.

When her father was appointed military attaché, they reunited briefly in Berlin, experiencing blackout conditions, to make preparations for travel by night train to Budapest, which became their home for nearly two years.  Clare and her sister experienced a wide mix of educational opportunities in Budapest, with instruction for Clare at her first convent school limited initially to those classes offered in German (botany, for example), as she spoke no Hungarian. Clare and Margaret subsequently attended a French convent school where they found a more rigorous education offered in both French and German.     They socialized extensively with many diplomatic and military families and made many happy memories in Budapest.  It was in there that Clare was first introduced to algebra, at her father’s urging, which led to a life-long passion for science in general and math in particular.  Some of Clare’s most vivid childhood memories were from these years, which came to an abrupt end shortly after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and the family was whisked out of the country on a sealed train at night, headed to Portugal.  In Lisbon, Clare and her sister spent six happy months with no school, waiting for the eventual Atlantic crossing on the Swedish ship SS Drottningholm that brought them back to the U.S. in the summer of 1941.  Clare and her sister lived in Manhattan with their mother for most of the war while their father was overseas serving as chief of staff of the VII Army Corps in World War II.

With her extensive travel, foreign language ability and wide-ranging educational experiences, Clare was ready for college at the young age of 15.   She attended Bryn Mawr and graduated cum laude in 1947, at the age of 18, with a degree in Mathematics.

After working with the government in Washington, DC for several years, Clare was posted to Vienna, Austria with the CIA in 1951.  It was in Vienna that she met her future husband, Jack Junior Fieldhouse.  Clare and Jack married in December, 1952 in Vienna and settled into a content and busy life.  Once back in Washington, D.C. with four school-aged children, Clare returned to her first passion and became a math and science teacher at Maret School.  She re-joined the CIA once her children were grown where she served for another dozen years with distinction as an analyst.  Following Jack’s retirement, she took a posting overseas to Munich, Germany, accompanied by Jack who revisited his love of painting and cooking in his new-found spare time.  Their love for each other through the years was deep and never faltered.  Their children often noted amongst themselves that this seemed to be a love like no other.  It

was therefore a crushing blow when Clare lost Jack to sudden heart failure in August, 1986.

Clare returned to the U.S. in 1988 and retired from the CIA.  She spent time with her children and grand – children, read physics and philosophy, and continued her lifelong pursuit of knowledge.  Her stoicism, her keen mind, and her fierce independence will live on through the admiration of her children.

Clare is predeceased by her husband of 34 years, Jack, and her sister Margaret.  She is survived by her four children, Susan Fieldhouse Douglas of Alexandria, Virgina; Richard Fieldhouse (Ann) of Silver Spring, Maryland; Douglas Fieldhouse (Suchen) of Woodway, Washington; and Lucy Buckner (Jim) of Ponte Vedra, Florida; eight grandchildren and two great-grandchildren,

Services provided by Northern Virginia Burial & Cremation Society will be private.  The family requests that contributions be made to Goodwin Living Foundation, which provided exceptional hospice care at Clare’s end of life.

To plant a tree in memory of Clare Partridge Fieldhouse, please visit our Tribute Store.