Clifton H. W. Maloney, 71, the husband of Queens and Brooklyn Congressmember Carolyn Maloney, passed away on September 25 on Cho Oyu Mountain located, between the boarder of Nepal and China. He had reached the 27,000-foot summit on the morning of September 24, making him the oldest American to ever summit an 8,000 meter peak. He spent that night at Base Camp 3 and arrived the following day at Base Camp 2 at 23,000 feet where he died in his sleep. His last words were, “I’m the happiest man in the world. I’ve just summited a beautiful mountain.”
Born in Philadelphia on October 15, 1937, Clifton Maloney graduated from Princeton University in 1960, Harvard Business School in 1965 and served in the U.S. Navy from 1960-1963. An investment banker and real estate investor, Maloney worked at several financial services companies, including The City Management Corp, Electronic Bond and Share Company and New York Securities Co., Inc.
In 1974, Maloney became a Vice President of Goldman, Sachs & Co. In 1981, he founded his own company, C.H.W. Maloney & Co., Incorporated, to acquire established businesses for long-term investment. Maloney served as a director of several companies, including The Wall Street Fund, Inc. and Interpool Limited.
Maloney was also a dedicated marathon runner who had finished the New York Marathon 20 times and in 2008 finished as the fastest American in his age group. He enjoyed sailing and was a member of the New York Yacht Club.
He was an avid mountain climber having climbed five of the Seven Summits (including Mount Elbrus, Aconcagua, Mount Vinson, Denali, and Mount Kilimanjaro). In addition, he climbed Orizaba, Mexico’s highest volcano. He was a member of the Explorers Club and the American Alpine Club. His passion for mountain climbing and an equally great passion for boats of all sorts stemmed from his experiences as a life-long summer resident of Blue Mt. Lake in the Adirondacks.
Congressmember Maloney expressed thanks to many community groups as well as her legislative colleagues who have helped her during this difficult period.
“I would also like to thank Secretary Clinton and her team at the State Department for their help to my family and all Americans who lose a loved one abroad,” Maloney said in a statement. “When you see the professionalism that is exhibited by our American public servants around the world in times of crisis, whether it be enormous in scale like 9-11, or a tragedy that affects but a single family, it makes you so proud and so profoundly grateful to be an American.”
Maloney is survived by his wife, Carolyn Jane Bosher Maloney, to whom he was married in 1976, his daughters, Christina Paul Maloney and Virginia Marshall Maloney, his mother, Virginia Wells Maloney, his sister, Virginia Maloney Lawrence, and eight nieces and nephews.
In lieu of flowers, please send donations to the Clifton H.W. Maloney Scholarship Fund at Princeton University, the Explorers Club or the American Alpine Club. The funeral will be held on Friday, October 9 at 11 a.m., at the Brick Church on Park Avenue between East 91st and East 92nd Streets in Manhattan
