Clyde R. Modie, a Williston, North Dakota, and Madison, Wisconsin, dentist who served as a dental surgeon with the 32nd Division, American Expeditionary Force, was born in Mt. Gillead, Ohio, on 11 January 1875, son of Martin Gates and Julia Augusta Modie. He did not attend high school but graduated from Ohio State University, and in 1907 received a degree in dentistry from the Ohio State University Medical School. Modie then headed west to establish a practice on the west coast. Persuaded instead to remain in Williston, North Dakota, he became the town's first dentist. There he met and married Grace Hobbins, a native of Madison, Wisconsin, who was teaching music in the Williston public schools. In 1915, the family moved to Madison where Modie joined the Jackson Clinic, founded by Dr. James A. Jackson, half-brother of Grace Hobbins father, Joseph Hobbins. He practiced in Madison from 1917 to 1927 except for his service in World War I.
Modie's military career began early with his enlistment in the Ohio National Guard in 1893. He subsequently re-enlisted in the Fourth Regiment of the Ohio Infantry Volunteers in 1898. He served in the Spanish-American War and remained in the Ohio National Guard until 1901. In 1917 he enlisted in the Wisconsin National Guard and became a dental surgeon of the 32nd Division of the American Expeditionary Force. He served at Camp Douglas, Wisconsin; Camp MacArthur, Waco, Texas; in France; and in Germany. After the war Modie remained in the Wisconsin National Guard until 1928 and worked two or three days a week at the Psychiatric Institute in Madison as its dentist. The suffering and destruction of the war seem to have had a devastating effect on Modie, and in 1927, because of poor health, he moved to Missoula, Montana. Grace followed the next year. She died in 1935, and he died on 27 February 1945. They are survived by their only child, Margaret (Mrs. James S.) Watrous.
