| From West by Northwest.org Voices of the Northwest Remembering Gordon Clark By Megan Clark Apr 7, 2005
Gordon Kendall Clark died March 10, 2005 of age-related causes. A memorial service will be held at 1 p.m. Saturday, April 9 in Mt. Scott Park Presbyterian Church, 5512 SE 73rd Ave, Portland. Clark was born in Portland, October 23, 1911, to Schuyler and Clara Coykendall Clark. He spent his pre-school years on the family fruit ranch in Underwood, Wash., then moved to Portland, graduating from Franklin High School. After two years at Reed College studying physics, he transferred to a landscape architecture program at Oregon State University and the University of Oregon. He studied under Fred Cuthbert, Arthur Peck and Harlow Hudson, who stressed the values of citizen involvement and of keeping nature in the city. Clark married Elaine Ellmaker of Eugene in 1937, and they both received their B. A. degrees in 1938. In 1945, he started working for the Portland Bureau of Planning and continued there for over 30 years. His values and training as a landscape architect gave him a perspective that hadn’t yet been applied to the field of urban design. His early work as a visionary set a precedent for planning that was to become a hallmark of Portland’s reputation as a well-planned city. As a city planner, he designed pedestrian linkages from neighborhood schools and parks to watercourse trails, including a continuous Willamette greenway from the Columbia to the southern reaches of the metro area. His vision was eventually picked up through the political process, leading to McCall’s Willamette River Greenway. Clark advocated for parks, bike-paths, and open plazas including Pioneer Courthouse Square. Outings since 1964 with the Mazama mountaineering club led him to climb over 70 mountain peaks, and encouraged a camera’s eye view of his outdoor experiences. He started a second career as a nature photographer of landscapes and abstract patterns in wood, sand, water, and rock. He held a 120 color photo show at Reed’s Vollum Lounge during the 50th reunion of his class of 1933; exhibited in Artquake 1992; and Art About Agriculture, with purchase prize, 1991. Photographic prints from the Reed show are in the Portland Art Museum and Gilkey Print collections. He exhibited widely in coastal galleries as well as special shows with his late wife, photographer and poet, Elaine Ellmaker Clark. Archives and negatives from the Clarks’ careers as nature photographers have been donated to the University of Oregon Library Division of Special Collections and University Archives. He is survived by his sister, Frances M. Smith, Portland, and children Roger B. Clark of Bellingham, Wash., Keith L. Clark, Tujunga, California, Megan J. Clark, Eugene, Jenifer A. Jacobus, Vancouver, Washington; Bruce H. Clark, Cathlin M. Clark, and Sherry D. Wemple, Portland. He has 10 grandchildren and 6 great-grandchildren. Memorial contributions may be made to the Nature Conservancy in Portland.
My Eulogy for My Dad Gordon loved trees. He and his sister, Frances, spent their early years on the family fruit ranch in Underwood, Washington, climbing trees and watching the changing weather patterns in the sky above the majestic Columbia River Gorge. The orchard was sold and they moved to Portland for the good schools, following their father around as he worked in various hotels as a chef. They moved so many times between Portland, Kansas, and the coast, that the children went to 22 grade schools and 2 high schools. Maybe this is why he wasn’t exactly a “flaming extrovert.” Gordon and Frances spent many years with their parents working at the Gearhart Hotel, where Gordon learned to swim out past the breakers into the sea on an in-coming tide. He kept up this activity all of his life, and taught his children how to swim in the sea too. It was quite a sight to watch them swimming behind him out to sea, six little bodies bobbing along. He was daring and adventuresome, and allowed his children to try exciting things. Many of them climbed rocks and play structures before they could walk. Gordon was given the opportunity to go to college, and studied physics at Reed in Portland. He loved to roam the canyons there, and be amongst the stately trees on campus. His heart was truly rooted in his first love of trees and natural areas, and he switched to the Landscape Architecture program at Oregon State College and then to the University of Oregon. While in college, the first piece of art that he collected was of oak trees, by Alfred Schroff. He spent his laundry and book money on it, to his parents’ shock. He studied with Harlow Hudson. Hudson was a great influence and a life long friend. Gordon met his wife, Elaine, at the University of Oregon at a dance. Elaine noticed when they danced that his shirt was wet. He must have been doing his own laundry with the drip-dry method, but surely, she was impressed with his art collection! The two shared a deep love of classical music throughout their lives. Their children remember being awakened early on Saturday mornings to the blaring of Rossini’s “William Tell Overture” or Tchaicovsky’s “1812 Overture” with the canons, if they needed to get up early to go on a trip. Smitten with each other, Gordon and Elaine both broke off engagements with others to be free to see each other. It was spring and they both had a string of incompletes as they spent their study time together, strolling along the shore of the Willamette River, or climbing Spencer Butte in Eugene. While walking along Willamette Street one day, they stopped in a jewelry store, and found a beautiful wedding ring that they liked for Elaine. Having spent their money on ice cream cones, they only had a nickel left to put down as a deposit. I’m sure they would agree is it was the luckiest nickel they ever spent! In 1945, Gordon got a job working for the Portland Bureau of Planning, and stayed there for over 30 years. He brought his love of trees and the natural world with him, giving a new slant to urban planning. As a landscape architect, Gordon incorporated nature into his designs, and the wishes of the people in the community. He had great respect for walkers and advocated for pedestrian linkages throughout the city. He insisted on leaving as much of the natural world as possible in the city core. His influence is felt today in Portland as we enjoy the many parks, bikepaths, greenways, public squares and access to public transportation. Since Portland is a hallmark of urban planning now, this influence is felt around the world as well. Raising six children, Gordon and Elaine turned to the Millard Avenue Presbyterian Church for help (now Mt. Scott Park). Elaine and Gordon helped in turn. Elaine sang in the choir while her children giggled through the service out of reach in the balcony. Gordon contributed by designing programs for the choir festivals, designing the parking lot, and planting the trees that you see today. Gordon learned how to cook from his father. His children remember waiting around the stove when he cooked breakfast to composer Anton Bruckner on week-ends. He made pancakes as big as the pan would allow, then flipped them way into the air. They came out perfectly. When the children were teenagers, Gordon realized that he could finally take a break from providing a religious education for his children in church, and he moved them to the mountains on weekends instead. He took his wife and children to climbing school with the Mazama mountaineering club.
Gordon loved being back in the natural world, and climbed and photographed his way through wild seacoasts and mountains all over the West. This led to a second career as a nature photographer. Elaine tired of waiting for the clouds to move so that Gordon could get a better photo. She picked up his old camera and joined him in this fascinating new way to pursue art. The archives from their beautiful award-winning photos are now housed in the library at the University of Oregon in Special Collections and University Archives. You can go there and look at the albums of their hikes and mountain climbs together, and continue to order prints of their work at cost. They also fostered the careers of many Northwest artists, buying art and networking on their behalf. Gordon’s generosity of spirit is deeply felt by everyone whose life he touched. © Copyright 2000-2004 by West by Northwest.org |
