Myke Clarett, longtime local businessman, community leader and father of football standout Maurice Clarett, died Wednesday at his home in Youngstown.
He was 53.
Clarett, a native of Youngstown, Cardinal Mooney graduate, and radio, TV and film major at Bowling Green State University, is the President of MC Professional Company, an election consulting and campaign management firm.
In the 1980's, Clarett was a television engineer at WKBN-TV.
He later founded and operated City-Wide Delivery, a startup delivery service whose trucks were seen criss-crossing the Mahoning Valley in the 1990's. He followed City-Wide with Myke's Same Day Delivery, then diversified into many other business interests ranging from home remodeling, to carpet cleaning, to phone services.
Clarett also tried his hand at politics. Our station records show him running unsuccessfully for Youngstown Board of Education in 2001. He was active in the local Republican party.
In the early 2000s, Clarett served as Northern Ohio Field Representative for then-Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell, appearing regularly at events related to election activities. Clarett served Boards of Elections in 19 counties and oversaw 35 election recounts.
Longtime friend Rev. Lewis Macklin, pastor at Holy Trinity Missionary Baptist Church in Youngstown, described Clarett as "a brother to me, a dear friend." Macklin said "if you need someone to go into a fight with, Myke's your guy."
Funeral arrangements are pending at this time.
