I was able to get the Wilwood Clutch MC installed and working yesterday. This solved my clutch engagement issue.
Now it makes sense as why the brake fluid was turning dark so quick.
It appears the seal went bad even though it had about 1K miles on it. I replaced the slave cylinder at the same time so hopefully it doesn't follow the same failure path soon. It's difficult to tell but I believe some of moisture in the pic below could be water and instead of brake fluid. I was using DOT 4 which may not resist moisture as well as DOT3 from what I'm told.
As someone pointed out, who knows how long these parts sat on a vendor's shelf before I purchased them.
Thanks for all the help on this!
John