Marion Clayton Link 1907-1995 by Jeanne Eichelberger

Marion Clayton grew up in Ilion, New York, and attended Syracuse University, where she received a B.S. degree in journalism. After graduating she worked for the Utica Observer Dispatch and the Syracuse Journal American before moving to Binghamton, New York, to work as a reporter for the local paper, The Binghamton Press. Perhaps her most often-quoted statement was that she “married her best story” after she was sent to interview the young local inventor, Edwin Link. They were married in 1931. As their life together would demonstrate, they had much in common, not only in shared interests, but also in their general approach to life. In her own right, Marion was no less remarkable a person than Ed.

From the start Marion was a true partner in more ways than simply being a good wife. Their friend Dr. Joseph MacInnis in “Remembering Marion, ” a short essay written upon her death, described theirs as “a unique partnership. Ideas and commitment to those ideas flowed easily between them. In a seamless way they complemented each other's strengths and weaknesses.” Once married to Ed, Marion initially took over the business management of his fledgling enterprises, which included the Link Aeronautical Corporation, Link Aviation Devices, Inc., and the Link Flying School, featuring the Link Trainer. Over the next few years her practical business sense helped to keep things in order even as her writing talent helped publicize Ed's inventions. In 1938 their first child, William Martin was born, followed in 1941 by their second, Edwin Clayton. By that time World War II was underway, and Link Trainers had become an important part of the Allied war effort, both in the United States and in Europe. At its peak, Link Aviation had factories in Binghamton and in Gananoque, Canada, and was able to turn out 80 Link Trainers a week. More than half a million aviators used the Trainers to learn instrument flying during the war.

Meanwhile, once their children were born, Marion became, for a time, less actively involved in Ed's professional life. She re-emerged as his partner in research in 1953, when he and his brother, George T. Link, sold the Link company to General Precision Equipment Corp. Ed then pursued his growing interest in underwater exploration and technology. The Links had taken up sailing off the coast of Florida and the Bahamas as a relaxing hobby, but in a pattern which seems to have been typical of their life together, recreation soon became meshed with new projects, inventions and inquiry, until it was impossible to tell where play ended and work began.

The shift from recreational sailing and scuba diving to serious exploration began with the discovery of an antique ship's gun in the Bahamas. While investigating the possibility that the gun might have come from one of Columbus' ships, the Links found themselves caught up in the whole question of where exactly Columbus landed, where he might have sailed in the New World, and what exactly had happened to his ship, the Santa Maria. Using a converted shrimp trawler, Sea Diver, as their base, the Links moved from extensive research on Columbus' travels to exploration for the remains of other historic ships. As they refined their techniques for searching out historic artifacts while disturbing the sites as little as possible, Ed began to tinker anew, designing and redesigning equipment, instruments, vessels and diving bells. Their reputation spread, they “traded up” to a larger Sea Diver II and were invited to conduct explorations in other parts of the world, including the Middle East and Jamaica. The enthusiasm with which Marion embraced her husband's new interest was the more remarkable because, unlike flying, which she had always loved, diving was, at least initially, terrifying to her.

The Links' sons, William and Clayton, accompanied them on many of their explorations, and Clayton became a diver and an active participant in his parents' research. In 1973, during a routine scientific dive in a submersible designed by Ed, the cables of the submersible became entangled in a shipwreck on the sea bottom, and Clayton and a fellow diver, Albert Stover, died before they could be rescued. Marion was on the scene, logging messages to and from the trapped men, maintaining contact to the end. Again, describing her in Remembering Marion, Dr. Maclnnis writes, “In spite of the pain, she embraced the future with resolution, taking her husband, her family and all of us with her. We were witnesses to a triumph of will.”

During the almost 30 years of sea exploration and research, from Ed's retirement from Link Aviation until his death in 1981, Marion achieved what any woman will readily recognize as an astonishing balancing act. By most people's standards the Links were very well-off, both in terms of money and in terms of general good fortune. Whatever they tried seemed to take off and flourish. Both socially and in the world of technology they achieved prominence at a fairly young age, and time only enhanced their success. Over the years, their efforts were recognized and appreciated. Even the tragedy of their son Clayton's death did not deter them, but rather was turned to a positive purpose: motivation to work harder to perfect the equipment so that such accidents would be less likely to happen again. (They subsequently established the Link Foundation-Stover/Link Scholarship Fund in memory of Clayton and the friend who died with him.) They numbered among their friends and admirers people from all over the world and from all walks of life: scientists, statesmen, artists, entertainers, musicians, inventors, scholars as well as countless “ordinary” people who were not treated as ordinary by the Links. With their good fortune came responsibilities, which the Links accepted with grace. There were functions to attend, charities to support and promote, organizations to lead, records to keep, research to pursue and reports to write, lectures to give, correspondence to maintain, the Link Foundation research awards and activities to sponsor, to say nothing of a family life to hold together. Much of the credit for keeping the many facets of their eventful lives moving along smoothly must go to Marion. It is even more to her credit that, in addition to being a successful wife to Ed Link¾surely a full-time job in itself¾Marion remained very much her own person with her own achievements.

Her active interest in education was formally recognized in 1954, when the Governor of New York appointed her as one of the first members of the Harpur College Council (later the Binghamton University Council) shortly after Harpur College became part of the New York State University system. She was later made an honorary life member of both the Binghamton University Advisory Council and the Harpur Forum, was awarded the Binghamton University Alumni Association's Distinguished Service Award and, with Ed, was twice recognized for Distinguished Citizenship by the Harpur Forum Committee of the Binghamton University Foundation. She also served as a Trustee of Syracuse University and was a member of the President's Club of Indian River Community College Foundation in Ft. Pierce, Florida.

A successful scholar in her own right, Marion authored research reports for the National Geographic and the Smithsonian Institution and in 1961 was awarded the George Arents Pioneer Medal for excellence in archaeology. She also received the History Hunters Award from the Binghamton Chamber of Commerce. Her professional and honorary memberships included the Society of Women Geographers, Theta Sigma Phi, Pi Beta Phi, Phi Kappa Phi, Delta Kappa Gamma International and Zonta International.

She was an active member and enthusiastic supporter of a variety of civic and cultural groups. She served on the Executive Board of the Roberson Museum and Science Center in Binghamton, New York, as Trustee of the Binghamton Y.W.C.A., and as Chairman of Planned Parenthood of Broome County, to name only a few. A person with many and varied interests, she was also a member of the Amaryllis Circle of the Garden Club of Indian River County, the Riomar Bay Yacht Club and The Community Church United Church of Christ in Vero Beach.

Her outstanding professional talent, though, was as a writer. Early in her marriage to Ed, her skill and training as a journalist were put to use presenting his inventions and enterprises effectively to the public. Throughout their long partnership, she kept extensive diaries and journals which provide useful insights into the development of their research and form the backbone of From Sea to Sky; A Story of Edwin A. Link, which was written by Susan van Hoek with Marion's help. The collection of her writings includes dozens of essays and articles, published and unpublished, both autobiographical and scholarly. Her first major research publication, co-authored with Ed in 1958, was A New Theory on Columbus's Voyage Through the Bahamas, in which the Links used their own exploration to support their theory regarding the location of Columbus's first landing in the New World, the direction of his subsequent voyage through the Bahamas, and what became of his ship, the Santa Maria. Marion's more personal account of their travels, Sea Diver, was published in the same year and went through several printings over the next eight years. Her second book, Windows in the Sea, was published by the Smithsonian Institution Press in 1973. With a remarkable combination of readable narrative and scientific accuracy, it describes the development of the bubble sub Johnson-Sea-Link, which made undersea exploration possible at depths of 3, 000 feet.

After Ed's death, Marion remained in the house they had built in Florida, leading a much less public life, but pursuing her lifelong interests and maintaining contact with her family and many friends. Despite failing health, in 1993, just two years before her death, she collaborated with Susan van Hoek to publish From Sky to Sea, based on her diaries and logs. In the same year the family established the Marion Clayton Link Endowment in Creative Writing at Binghamton University to honor her lifelong commitment to writing.

Marion was described by her Binghamton friend Robert Best as “a vivacious, lovely lady...fiercely independent...but totally supportive of her husband.” Dr. MacInnis wrote of her, “When you looked into Ed Link's eyes you saw creativity, determination, genius. When you looked into Marion's eyes you saw warmth, comfort and security, reinforced by that wonderful smile that flashed across her face like sunshine racing across water. If there is one word that comes immediately to mind when thinking of Marion Link, it is graciousness.... If there is a single quality that shines with undiminished brilliance throughout the latter half of Marion's life, it is her courage.”

A better role model would be hard for women of any age to find¾although it is doubtful that Marion thought of herself that way. The quotations which she chose to include in her books reveal the breadth of her education and her familiarity with literature of all sorts. But the frequency with which she chose to quote the Psalms is perhaps most telling of all. From Sky to Sea begins with the quotation, “What is man, that thou art mindful of him...” from Psalm 1. Windows in the Sea, which was dedicated to her son Clayton and his friend Albert Stover and published shortly after they died, opens with an excerpt from Psalm 107:

They that go down to the sea in ships

That do business in great waters,

These see the works of the Lord

And His wonders in the deep.

Her choice of these passages offers an indication of the genuine humility and the genuine delight with which Marion Link approached life.

The Marion Clayton Link Collection