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Permanent LinkRepresentative Clark Henry McNeal View All Years
CLARK H. McNEAL, state legislator, grain dealer, and operator of a farm management, real estate and insurance business, died at Belmond, Iowa July 28, 1959; born in Clarion, Iowa December 4, 1918, the son of Clark Edward and Hilda Bredholm McNeal; attended public schools in Clarion and Rockford, Illinois where his parents moved about 1930; graduated from Cornell College at Mount Vernon in 1939, and received a masters degree in public administration from the University of Michigan two years later; married Dorothy Courson of Belmond August 26, 1939, accepted a position as branch manager for the Beneficial Management Corporation, returned to Belmond to take over management of the Courson farm management and real estate business upon the death of his father-in-law, R. E. Courson, in 1942; formed a partnership with a brother-in-law, Ronald W. Courson, in 1944, and upon its dissolution in 1953, established the McNeal Grain Company in Clarion, though continuing to live and operate a farm management, real estate and insurance business in Belmond; was active in community affairs, becoming president of the Belmond Chamber of Commerce, heading Red Cross and bondÂselling drives, played an important part in building the Belmond hospital, and served a term on the city council; named Republican committeeman and alternate delegate to the Republican national convention at Philadelphia in 1948; first sought public office in 1950, being easily elected state representative from Wright County; a fluent and effective speaker, was re-elected for his fifth term in 1958 after gaining considerable prominence between sessions as chairman of a special legislative committee that investigated campaign and election practices; chosen majority leader by his party during the Fifty-eighth General Assembly, and contributed much to improved cooperation between the two opposing political parties; was active in the Masonic lodge and a member of the Methodist Church; survived by his wife and five children; Clark E., 17; David Anthony, 14; Kristin Jane, 11; Tyler, 6; and Sherman, 21 months.