Clifford "Cliff" Chet Thirtyacre

Clifford Chet Thirtyacre was born April 21,1948 in Coral Gables Florida and left this world on August 8, 2026. Cliff’s Dad was a trainer of thoroughbred horses and thus the family moved around the country as his dad followed the Thoroughbred circuit. Cliff joked that he'd attended 14 different schools in his 12 years of education which may have been a slight exaggeration but it was pretty close!

Cliff ultimately graduated from high school in Hallandale Beach, Florida from a small private high school, Nowlin Oceanview in 1966. Cliff was a proud Navy Veteran who served during the Vietnam War era and was honored to have had the privilege of serving. He thoroughly enjoyed his time traveling the high seas and seeing the world. This is a tradition he would carry on in his civilian life as he loved to travel and especially visit his family’s home state of Iowa to attend many family reunions and to introduce his grandson to the Thirtyacre family in Iowa.

Cliff’s love of family and Iowa began in his teens, when he spent a summer with his Uncle Gale who had 4 boys of his own and took on Cliff as well as 5 female cousins at his family farm. The farm had 40 head of horses on it and all learned to ride and enjoy the parts of their lives that their fathers loved growing up in the country in Iowa. These 10 cousins never forgot that summer in Iowa and were bonded forever by it. Cliff always stayed in touch with Uncle Gale, not wanting to lose touch with the memories and the family. He did his best to keep the Thirtyacre name alive and something to be proud of, organizing family reunions every 2 years for a decade or more. Looking up so many dates for more information on the family tree and keeping all the cousins informed on their shared history. He went so far as to find extended cousins in Dreissigacker, Germany and even visited their winery.

After leaving the Navy Cliff took on many diverse jobs, everything from a taxi driver to a short order cook though he finally settled on a familiar career working on ships at Atlantic Marine and Drydock. He worked there for many years as an electrician and then segued into a position in the estimating department. This career served him well as he resumed his travels primarily around the Caribbean Sea but also took him to Europe and various ports of call-in the United States. Though his stint as a short order cook was short lived, he always had a love for cooking and making fall off the bone barbeque with his special barbeque sauce.

Cliffs passing touches us all greatly as he was a loving husband, father, grandfather and friend. The decision was made to donate his organs to others so our hope is that while Cliff is gone, a bit of him will live on in others. He was driven when inspired. Cliff was kind, thoughtful, funny and inspirational. If he could he would. He will always be remembered for his great smile, big heart and swagger. He will be greatly missed by all who were fortunate enough to know him.

Cliff was predeceased by his father Chet Thirtyacre and his mom Millie, as well as his brother Dale. Cliff is survived by his wife of 47 years, Candi Sprague and his daughter Anne Thirtyacre as well as two grandchildren Colten Nelson and Anniston Leeper. He is also survived by his sister Pam Tako(Bob). There will be a private memorial service held at a later date.

If you wish to remember Cliff by donating to a charity please do so by contributing in his memory to EveryPet (previously known as no more homeless pets) at everypet.org