Obituary for Barbara Davis Clark
Barbara D. Clark, 93, died March 19, 2023, at her home in Orono with her family by her side. She was born July 28, 1929 in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania.
Barbara graduated from Swarthmore High School in 1947, and enrolled at Mary Washington College in Charlotte, Virginia, graduating in 1951 with a B.A. in Sociology. She then began working at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, an experience she spoke warmly of for the rest of her life. In 1954, seeking adventure overseas, she joined the United Services Organization and was posted to Germany. There she met an artillery officer, 2nd Lieutenant David H. Clark, the love of her life. While in Germany they began six decades of foreign travel together with a trip through Italy in Lieutenant Clark’s Karmann Ghia.
Returning stateside, Dave and Barbara were married in Swarthmore May 4, 1957. After a Cape May, New Jersey honeymoon, they traveled to Wichita Falls, Texas, for their first year of married life. Shifting gears in 1958 they moved to Madison, Wisconsin where Barbara worked for Easter Seals while Dave continued his education. She and Dave then moved to Baltimore, Maryland in 1961. The following year they brought their eldest child John home, an adoption which was followed in 1964 when they brought their daughter Catherine home to Orono.
In Orono Barbara made a home and raised their children while Dave pursued his University of Maine career. Since moving to Orono in 1963, Barbara formed so many ever-deepening friendships over the sixty years she lived in the area. A deep well of such friendships were the women of the Shakespeare Club, of which she was a member for forty years.
Coming to Maine that year was something of a homecoming for Barbara, as her family had been summer folks in West Boothbay Harbor since 1911. During her life the family lived in three beloved cottages on McKown and Juniper Points. And, since her early childhood, she spent years of summers on those beautiful shores.
As Barbara raised her family in Orono she pursued her education, earning an M.A. in Sociology at the University. During this period, she became professionally involved in the development of our region, using her sociology training in a variety of jobs, projects and directorships. These included the Eastern Agency on Aging, The Housing Foundation, the Maine Council on the Humanities and Public Policy, and Community Health and Counseling Services. She began this work at the University of Maine’s Social Science Research Institute, during a period when the State was just beginning to plan and develop services for senior citizens. There she authored an important report of that time for the Blaine House Conference on Aging: Steps for Maine’s Elderly, 1974.
A pivotal year in her life was 1969 when she and Dave took their young family to Singapore, returning to Orono two years later. Decades of travel to every corner of the world followed, and Barbara made homes in Singapore, Jakarta, Indonesia, and Washington, DC for many years as Dave’s work took them back and forth between Maine and the rest of the world. Finally, in 2014 she and Dave returned to Orono one last time. A lifelong progressive in politics, her activism was based on firmly held principals of equality, diversity, and the inclusion of every last one of us in a just world.
Surviving are her children Catherine E. Clark of Orono, Maine and John H. Clark of Easton, Pennsylvania, her grandson David Brown of Biddeford, Maine and his partner Courtney Harrison and two great grandchildren, as well as two nieces and a nephew, Ellen, Paul, and Sarah Hamingson and their families. And we should not leave out her cat Chloe. She was predeceased by her husband of fifty-eight years David Henry Clark, her sister Jane D. Hamingson, and their parents.
Her children wish to thank all of the very special staff of Loving Touch and St Joseph’s Home Health and Hospice. Those who wish to remember Barbara in a special way may make gift to the Southern Poverty Law Center, 400 Washington Avenue, Montgomery, AL 36104 or the Bangor Humane Society, 693 Mt hope Avenue, Bangor, ME 04401. A memorial service will be held in Orono this summer.
Barbara graduated from Swarthmore High School in 1947, and enrolled at Mary Washington College in Charlotte, Virginia, graduating in 1951 with a B.A. in Sociology. She then began working at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, an experience she spoke warmly of for the rest of her life. In 1954, seeking adventure overseas, she joined the United Services Organization and was posted to Germany. There she met an artillery officer, 2nd Lieutenant David H. Clark, the love of her life. While in Germany they began six decades of foreign travel together with a trip through Italy in Lieutenant Clark’s Karmann Ghia.
Returning stateside, Dave and Barbara were married in Swarthmore May 4, 1957. After a Cape May, New Jersey honeymoon, they traveled to Wichita Falls, Texas, for their first year of married life. Shifting gears in 1958 they moved to Madison, Wisconsin where Barbara worked for Easter Seals while Dave continued his education. She and Dave then moved to Baltimore, Maryland in 1961. The following year they brought their eldest child John home, an adoption which was followed in 1964 when they brought their daughter Catherine home to Orono.
In Orono Barbara made a home and raised their children while Dave pursued his University of Maine career. Since moving to Orono in 1963, Barbara formed so many ever-deepening friendships over the sixty years she lived in the area. A deep well of such friendships were the women of the Shakespeare Club, of which she was a member for forty years.
Coming to Maine that year was something of a homecoming for Barbara, as her family had been summer folks in West Boothbay Harbor since 1911. During her life the family lived in three beloved cottages on McKown and Juniper Points. And, since her early childhood, she spent years of summers on those beautiful shores.
As Barbara raised her family in Orono she pursued her education, earning an M.A. in Sociology at the University. During this period, she became professionally involved in the development of our region, using her sociology training in a variety of jobs, projects and directorships. These included the Eastern Agency on Aging, The Housing Foundation, the Maine Council on the Humanities and Public Policy, and Community Health and Counseling Services. She began this work at the University of Maine’s Social Science Research Institute, during a period when the State was just beginning to plan and develop services for senior citizens. There she authored an important report of that time for the Blaine House Conference on Aging: Steps for Maine’s Elderly, 1974.
A pivotal year in her life was 1969 when she and Dave took their young family to Singapore, returning to Orono two years later. Decades of travel to every corner of the world followed, and Barbara made homes in Singapore, Jakarta, Indonesia, and Washington, DC for many years as Dave’s work took them back and forth between Maine and the rest of the world. Finally, in 2014 she and Dave returned to Orono one last time. A lifelong progressive in politics, her activism was based on firmly held principals of equality, diversity, and the inclusion of every last one of us in a just world.
Surviving are her children Catherine E. Clark of Orono, Maine and John H. Clark of Easton, Pennsylvania, her grandson David Brown of Biddeford, Maine and his partner Courtney Harrison and two great grandchildren, as well as two nieces and a nephew, Ellen, Paul, and Sarah Hamingson and their families. And we should not leave out her cat Chloe. She was predeceased by her husband of fifty-eight years David Henry Clark, her sister Jane D. Hamingson, and their parents.
Her children wish to thank all of the very special staff of Loving Touch and St Joseph’s Home Health and Hospice. Those who wish to remember Barbara in a special way may make gift to the Southern Poverty Law Center, 400 Washington Avenue, Montgomery, AL 36104 or the Bangor Humane Society, 693 Mt hope Avenue, Bangor, ME 04401. A memorial service will be held in Orono this summer.