Ron Clarke Jeopardy Profile: Age, Job, Family, Stats

Find out all the Jeopardy! results for Ron Clarke, including games played, scores and competitors.

Ron Clarke Jeopardy Contestant Profile

Ron Clarke is a retired wildlife biologist, longtime falconer, conservation advocate and former Alaska public official based in Chickaloon, Alaska. He appears on Jeopardy! as a contestant from Chickaloon with the occupation “Retired Wildlife Biologist.” That description captures only one part of a career that has also included senior work with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, state government, public broadcasting, nonprofit advocacy and decades of hands-on work with birds of prey.

Clarke earned a Bachelor of Science in Fish and Wildlife Management from Montana State University and later completed a Master of Science in Zoology at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. His graduate work focused on birds of prey, giving him a strong academic foundation in raptor biology that became closely intertwined with his lifelong involvement in falconry.

He spent many years working in wildlife biology in Alaska, including extensive field experience. His work included surveying peregrine falcons along the Yukon River and spending three field seasons living on the sea ice with Iñupiaq whaling crews while working as a biologist for the Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission. These experiences placed him directly in remote field environments and connected his scientific work with wildlife management, subsistence issues and Alaska Native communities.

Clarke later rose to a senior leadership role with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, serving as Assistant Director of the Division of Wildlife Conservation. In that position, he represented Alaska on the Pacific Flyway Council and National Flyway Council and also chaired the Alaska Migratory Bird Co-Management Council. His work therefore extended from hands-on field biology into statewide, national and intergovernmental wildlife policy.

He retired from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game at approximately 52 years old, after a career that placed him at the center of wildlife conservation and management issues in the state. Even after retirement, however, he remained highly active in conservation, falconry and public education.

Falconry has been one of the defining interests of Clarke’s life. He is a founding member of the Alaska Falconers Association and has spent decades flying and training raptors. Over the years he has worked with accipiters, buteos, falcons and eagles, and has also participated in rehabilitation work, school presentations and public demonstrations involving birds of prey. He has hunted with both gyrfalcons and peregrine falcons and has long been involved in improving Alaska’s falconry regulations.

Clarke has said that he spent roughly 30 years working to improve Alaska’s state falconry rules, relying on research, negotiation and collaboration with regulators and other stakeholders. His combination of wildlife training and practical falconry experience has made him a particularly prominent figure in Alaska’s falconry community.

His expertise has often been used in public education about raptors. He wrote educational material on falcons for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game and has been consulted about the capabilities of eagles and falcons, including questions about flight, prey-carrying ability and raptor behavior. His understanding comes from both formal zoological training and decades of working directly with trained birds.

More recently, Clarke has become especially associated with efforts to reduce lead poisoning in eagles and other scavenging wildlife. After research highlighted the extent of lead exposure in North American eagle populations, Clarke helped develop and lead the Alaska Copper Ammo Challenge, a voluntary program encouraging hunters to try non-lead copper ammunition.

The program focuses on a practical conservation problem: fragments from lead-core bullets can remain in animal carcasses and gut piles after hunting, where scavenging eagles and other wildlife may ingest them. Clarke worked with the Alaska Chapter of Backcountry Hunters and Anglers, Alaska Department of Fish and Game, falconers and hunters to encourage the use of copper ammunition by offering rebates to reduce the additional cost of trying it.

By 2025 and 2026, Clarke was actively appearing at public events with his gyrfalcon, using live birds and educational displays to explain the relationship between ammunition choices and raptor health. He appeared at the Alaska Federation of Natives Convention in 2025 as part of this outreach. He has emphasized voluntary participation and practical incentives rather than regulation as a way to persuade hunters to experiment with copper ammunition.

Clarke’s professional history is unusually broad for a wildlife biologist. Before and alongside his conservation work, he accumulated approximately a decade of experience in Alaska politics and another decade in public broadcasting. He served as a special assistant to Alaska Governors Steve Cowper and Tony Knowles and worked as a legislative aide to Alaska Representatives Niilo Koponen and David Guttenberg.

He was working in Governor Cowper’s office when the Exxon Valdez oil spill occurred in 1989. Clarke was involved in the state government response during the highly pressured aftermath of the disaster and publicly addressed issues surrounding claims and the economic effects of the spill, including impacts on Alaska tourism businesses.

Clarke later worked with Governor Tony Knowles’ administration, including work associated with the state’s Jobs Cabinet. His combination of political, environmental and communications experience allowed him to move between scientific management and broader public-policy roles.

He also spent years in Alaska public radio and television, including work as a host, producer and development director. At KTOO in Juneau, he served as development director and was involved in fundraising, communications and volunteer coordination. His broadcasting experience helped him develop skills in communicating complex issues to general audiences—skills that later became useful in conservation advocacy.

Clarke was also part of the long-running Juneau comedy and musical group 20th Century Bluescast, which originated as a KTOO radio program and later performed live at events such as the Alaska Folk Festival. The group used music, sketches and satire to comment on Alaska politics, culture and current events.

His nonprofit experience included running a fishing-industry-sponsored marine advocacy organization, where he created a statewide grassroots marine debris cleanup program. He later described raising more than $1 million to support that effort, demonstrating another side of his career involving fundraising, organizational leadership and environmental advocacy.

Clarke also returned to state service in other capacities after his wildlife-management career. He worked as a special assistant in the Alaska Department of Military and Veterans Affairs, including under Adjutant General Laurie Hummel. In that role, he helped advance recognition of Alaska history and Indigenous military service, including proposing that a facility in Kotzebue be named in honor of a prominent Alaska Native leader and veteran.

His public-service background has therefore spanned wildlife conservation, the governor’s office, the legislature, military and veterans affairs, public media and environmental nonprofits.

Outside formal employment, Clarke remains deeply connected to falconry, hunting, conservation education and Alaska wildlife. In 2026 he appeared on Alaska public radio discussing the tradition of falconry in the state and the relationship between falconry, hunting, conservation and education.

His life and career reflect an unusual combination of science, government, communications and outdoor experience. He has worked in remote biological field settings, senior wildlife-management offices, governor’s administrations, public television and radio, nonprofit environmental organizations and community conservation campaigns, while maintaining falconry as a constant thread throughout.

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Ron Clarke Jeopardy Results