T Sgt Clement L. Corbin U.S. Air Force Retired's Obituary
Technical Sergeant Clement Laurier Corbin, U.S. Air Force Retired, the son of Clement and Florence (Sugars) Corbin, was born on January 21, 1935 in Seattle, Washington. While Clement was in high school the family moved to Spokane, and at an early age Clement joined the Air Force.
He made the Air Force a career, serving both in the Korean Conflict, and later during Vietnam War. After having completed 20 years, he retired from the Air Force in 1973.
Clement eventually went to work for the Navy at the Bremerton Naval Shipyard, working another 20 years before fully retiring in 1993.
In his retirement years, he was an avid golfer, loved watching the Mariners and Seahawks, being with friends at the Fan Club and watching his grandchildren’s sporting events. Over the years his name evolved somewhat. To some he was simply ‘Corbin’, to others ‘Clem’, to others Poppa Corbin or Pops, and, of course, also Dad or Pop.
While son Larry was still in his boyhood years, Clement spent several years coaching Larry’s baseball team. As Larry tells it, Dad always had time for baseball, and Dad had a very positive approach to coaching. The first year, Larry’s team was like the ‘Bad News Bears’—they didn’t win a game that first year. But the 2nd year they went on to win the championship.
In 1989, Clement was married to Freida Batson. When I asked Freida how she met Clement, here’s the story: It was in about 1980 that Freida’s daughter Susan was doing some bartending. One day Freida stopped by to see her daughter at work and Clement was there with three other men. His friends suggested that he should pursue Freida. His pick-up line was this: “Do you want to go to a football game.” It seems this girl from South Carolina with five brothers wasn’t too much interested in football—but she thought, ‘what the heck’—and the rest is history. Freida and Clement were married in Idaho on May 25, 1989. They count themselves fortunate to have enjoyed 27 years of marriage—and were blessed with a loving family and lots of friends.
I’m told that Clement was a good man—who always a tried to be fair—and went out of his way to be helpful to others. He loved camping, gardening, being outdoors and loved to take in the rays of the sun tanning. He was very outgoing, and tended to see the best in others. He will be remembered for his laugh and sense of humor—his love of silly, everyday kinds of things—his loyalty and steadfast care towards Freida and family— a quiet man who was a true friend and the best husband and father.
If he had a particular fault, it was probably that he was not very mechanically inclined. Just ask daughter Sonya about the furnace filter incident. His solution to that debacle was this retort: “I’m getting a beer!”
He is survived by his wife Freida; son Larry and his wife Angela; step-daughters Sarah Smith-Sorensen and her husband Don; Sonja Vaught; Penny Patterson and her husband Bob; and Susan Gaer; brother Larry Corbin and his wife Judy; first wife Joyce Bacon and her husband Dave; grandchildren Sarah Spencer, Kristopher Corbin, Kassidy Corbin and Joel Magnuson; and great-grandson Samuel Spencer. He was preceded in death by his daughter Rozann Corbin, brother Ray Corbin and sister Diane Kamada.
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