Representative Russell G. Clark View All Years

RUSSELL G. CLARK

MR. SPEAKER: Your committee, appointed to prepare a suitable resolution commemorating the life, character and public service of the Honorable Russell G. Clark, begs leave to submit the following memorial:

Russell G. Clark·was born in Lawrence, Massachusetts, February 9, 1861, and passed away in Des Moines, Iowa, June 25, 1943, having reached the age of eighty-two years. His parents, Amasa C. and Jennie Gordon­Clark, were of New England stock. They moved to Manchester, Iowa, in 1872, where they established a wholesale produce business. Russ, an only son, followed in his father’s footsteps and devoted his entire life to the poultry and dairy industry.

In business, community interest, political prominence and general standing the name of R. G. (Russ) Clark deserves a high place in the history of Iowa.

Mr. Clark was educated in the public schools of Lawrence, Massachusetts, and Manchester, Iowa, and attended the Iowa College at Grinnell, Iowa, leaving college in his junior year to return to Manchester.

After spending two years in engineering work, Mr. Clark established himself in his life interest—the produce business. For three years he was so engaged at Marcus, Iowa; and then, in 1885, joined with his father as a partner in business at Williams, Iowa. His residence at Williams was short, as three months later they opened a like establishment at Webster City of which “R. G.” took charge. This partnership·continued until his father's death.

On the 18th of October, 1887, Mr. Clark was united in marriage with Emily S. Rann, a daughter of H. L. and Mary Rann of Manchester, Iowa. Mr. Rann was a publisher and in 1871 founded the Manchester Press, which paper has remained in the Rann family to this date. The present editor and publisher is a brother of Mrs. Clark.

To Mr. and Mrs. Clark one child was born, Miss Sibyl, who lives with her mother in Des Moines. Miss Clark attended Grinnell College, has been a constant companion of her mother in later years, and spends her leisure time writing short stories for National magazines.

Mr. Clark was always interested in good government, whether local, county, state, or national and was honored by being elected to many local and state offices. His first experience as a public servant was at Marcus, Iowa. When just old enough to vote he was elected township clerk and later held the office of assessor. At Webster City he was an alderman; mayor—the youngest ever chosen in that city; member of the board of education for seven years; postmaster for eleven years; and Chairman of the Republican County Central Committee. In 1897 he was elected representative from Hamilton county and served in the Twenty-seventh and Twenty-eighth General Assemblies of the State of Iowa. Upon entering the Legislature, Mr. Clark joined with the minority faction of his party in a fight against corporation influences which involved the question of railroad taxation. He soon became one of its leaders and, after four years of constant work, this minority grew to an overwhelming majority which resulted in the election of A. B. Cummins to the office of Governor in 1901. Mr. Clark was an unfaltering advocate of Republican principles and was always active and faithful in his effort to advance the influence of his party.

In 1922 Mr. Clark was appointed by the late Governor N. E. Kendall to be State Dairy Commissioner. When the Department of Agriculture was created in 1923, he continued as Chief of the Dairy and Food Division, in which capacity he served, except during the years 1933 to 1938, until he resigned from that position on December 1st, 1941, on account of his advanced age and ill health.

Following the sudden death of the first secretary of the state department of agriculture, Mr. R. W. Cassidy, in 1924, Mr. Clark was appointed by Governor Kendall as Acting Secretary of Agriculture. He served in this capacity from August 11th to August 28th of that year, when a candidate, Mark Thornburg, was nominated to succeed Mr. Cassidy by the State Republican Convention, which nominee was then appointed by the Governor as Secretary of Agriculture. Mr. Clark then continued as Chief of the·Dairy and Food Division of the Department under this new administration. His work was of great importance in the establishment and organization of the State Department of Agriculture and many of the fundamental policies that still exist in that department are due to his untiring effort, experience and ability. At the time of his resignation from the Dairy Division, Mr. W. F. Hunter, Editor and Publisher of the Webster City Freeman-Journal and a life­long friend of Mr. Clark, said:

“As a public officer, Mr. Clark made a clean record in all of the many positions he has held. No breath of scandal was ever whispered against him. He is certainly endowed by nature for public service. His ability, tact, courage, honesty, and his sincere devotion, were always in the interest of the public.”

Mr. Clark was a stanch believer in the principle of “Government of the people; by the people; and for the people.” In his earlier days at Webster City he became a leader of the movement for municipal ownership and later expounded the plan for a city manager form of government, which he helped to establish in that city. In his political activities he believed in the establishment of the primary system of nominating city, county and state candidates. He was also a firm believer in the right of popular suffrage, and had an abiding confidence in the ability of the people to have the widest possible privileges in fixing the policies of the government. In carrying out his beliefs, Mr. Clark was often engaged in many political conflicts along the way. He was calm in victory and knew what it meant to feel the sting of defeat. But, through it all, no friend or foe could truthfully say that he ever “double-crossed” them or resorted to questionable methods to win a victory. “R. G.” was always open and above board in his political activities. He was sincere in his convictions and had the courage and the ability to defend them.

Therefore, Be It Resolved by the House of Representatives of the Fifty-first General Assembly, That in the passing of the Honorable Russell G. Clark, the State has lost a valued and honored citizen and the family a kind and loving husband and father, and the House would tender by this resolution its sincere sympathy to the surviving members of the family.

Be It Further Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions be spread upon the Journal of the House and the Chief Clerk be directed to forward an enrolled copy to the librarian of the Kendall Young Library at Webster City, Iowa, to be filed as a permanent record in the biographical history of Hamilton county.

JOHN S. HEFFNER,

C. A. BRYSON,

ARCH W. MCFARLANE,

Committee.

Unanimously adopted,