Robert Harrison Clark

ROBERT HARRISON CLARK

Dad was born on May 12th, 1921 in Seattle to Dr. Ernest Doc and Ruth Clark. His brother Doug joined the family in 1925. Dad was raised in the family home on Magnolia that many of us have so many wonderful memories of. He graduated from Queen Anne High School and joined the Marines in 1939 and served his country as a Master Tech Sergeant spending a good bit of time in the Pacific theatre. His sweetheart, May Williams joined him in California and they were married on September 4th, 1941. While Dad went on to fight in the Pacific during WW II, Mom returned to Seattle to have their first child, Karen in 1942. Don was born in 1945. After Dad returned from the war, they purchased their first home in Magnolia off of 34th to raise their family. Jeannine joined the family in 1952.

Dad was in the refrigeration business for a while then joined his long time friends in the heating oil business which occupied the rest of his career. In the mid-1950's, they purchased property on Mercer Island and with Don?s help Dad built their next home for his family. Richard was born into that home in 1961. They sold that home in 1969 and purchased a brand new home in the Spiritbrook development in Redmond.

After retirement, they sold the Redmond home and purchased a very nice waterfront condo in Oak Harbor which they greatly enjoyed. It was next to the Little League ballpark and the City park, all along the waterfront. Dad purchased a boat while living there and spent many hours out on the salt water crabbing and fishing. They sold the condo and moved to a new home in Arlington in a golf course community where dad enjoyed feeding the birds and terrorizing the squirrels. That home was sold and they moved into the Chateau retirement facility in Bothell.

That's the chronology of Dad's life but it doesn't tell his story. Dad loved his parents and his entire family very much and dedicated his life to providing for them. To say he enjoyed the outdoors would be an understatement, traveling, fishing, boating, rock hounding and golf were just some of things he enjoyed outdoors. In his younger years hockey at the now Seattle Center and baseball also helped to shape his liking for the outdoors. . He got the most enjoyment out of fishing from many bike trips as a kid with boyhood friends, annual trips to Canada with various family members and friends to spending quality time with each of his children out chasing the big one. He chose each lure to be used very carefully, from his exhaustive bounty of lures and then gave each about 5 minutes to produce or it was coming out of the water. Karen, Don and Jeannine all love fishing to this day.

Dad was very active in the Kiwanis all during their years on Mercer Island, making many new friends and serving the community. He was a good neighbor, helping the other families in any way he was needed and spent many hours setting up and putting on the annual 4th of July fireworks show.

Dad was also involved with the community in Redmond and the condo association in Oak Harbor. He was active to the end with the residents' association in the Chateau in Bothell. He was always a good neighbor, helping out wherever he saw a need.

Dad was a father to his four children, grandfather to 16 and great-grandfather to more than that. The Clark?s are a very close knit family and much of that comes from the family values dad instilled in his kids who have done a good job of passing those values on.

Dad was a wizard with a tool. He could fix anything regardless of how broken it was and if there wasn?t a tool for the job he would create one or simply use his hands to get it done. On Mercer Island there were numerous times where he had to help out his mechanically challenged neighbor, Lloyd.

He was also blessed with quick whit humor which, judging by his children, is genetic. You could see a one liner or good laugh coming your way as there would be a sparkle in his eye just before you?d burst out laughing.

His family asks that you remember him as he was, a kind, selfless man with a wonderful heart, a hearty appetite for life as a whole and a job well done.

Thank you all for being here to share his memory with us.

The Clark Family