John P. St. John Memorial High School
Class of 1945

(Jan. 20, 1928 — Aug. 2, 2015)

After serving in the U.S. Navy aboard a minesweeper in the Western Pacific, Cliff enrolled at the University of Kansas. Upon graduation, he was hired by Hallmark Cards for its first management training program and later advanced to Division Director, responsible for Hallmark’s premier showplace stores at Disneyland, Disneyworld, and the award winning Hallmark Gallery at 56th Street and Fifth Avenue in New York City. Cliff served the First Presbyterian Church of Olathe as Sunday school teacher, deacon and elder, and was moderator of the Synod of Mid America, overseeing operations of more than 500 Presbyterian churches. In 1976, the Ball family received the Kansas Kiwanis Foundation’s “Family of Builders Award.” As the author of “Do You Remember When?” for the Johnson’s County Gazette, Cliff’s articles contained more than 1,400 historic items of interest to Olatheans.