The Rev. David William Clark Dies at 81
Diocesan Press Service. July 24, 1970 [89-13]
The Rev. David William Clark (Mato Catka) Left-Handed Bear, pioneer missionary, died in Denver, Colo. on July 22 in St. Luke's Hospital at the age of 81. He was active for more than fifty years in the American Indian mission and ministry of the Episcopal Church. Since retirement in 1957, the Rev. and Mrs. Clark have lived in Santa Fe, N. Mex., wintering in Tucson, Ariz.
The Rev. Mr. Clark was ordained deacon in 1918 and went first to Emmanuel Church in Rapid City, S.D., for one year. Advanced to the priesthood in 1919, he was for twenty-three years the priest-in-charge of the Crow Creek and Lower Brule Sioux Missions of the Episcopal Church, with headquarters at Old Fort Thompson, S.D. From 1931 to 1942 he was Dean of the Niobrara Deanery, with oversight of Episcopal Church work in all of the Dakota reservations.
In 1942, the Rev. Mr. Clark transferred to the Missionary District of Arizona to become Superintendent of Good Shepherd Mission at Fort Defiance, in Navajo Indian country. There he developed a community ministry and directed the Good Shepherd Mission Home for Navajo children through 1953. He served briefly as Acting Superintendent of San Juan Mission at Farmington, N. Mex. in 1954, and then was called to Minneapolis-St. Paul to initiate an urban ministry among American Indian people moving into the cities.
After he had retired, he went to Denver for a part of each year from 1961 to 1965, where he helped to organize a program of urban Indian ministry in the Episcopal Diocese of Colorado.
He was one of the founders of the Rural Workers Fellowship of the Episcopal Church, and served as its President in its early years. He helped to form the National Fellowship Of Indian Workers of the National Council of Churches. His life and ministry covered the wide range of political, social and religious change in the American Indian world, and in his work he combined the insights of pioneer, scholar, and practical man.
Fr. Clark was born in Belmont, N.Y., the son of the Rev. and Mrs. Aaron Baker Clark, who went west to the Rosebud Sioux Indian Agency in Dakota Territory early in 1889 to serve under the Rt. Rev. William Hobart Hare, Bishop of Niobrara. David was four months old at the time.
He grew up at Rosebud Agency and learned to speak the Sioux language at the same time that he learned English. He attended the He-Dog Day School, Kearney Military Academy in Nebraska, and Trinity College, Hartford, Conn.
A member of the Class of 1910 at Trinity, he graduated in 1912, having taken two years out to homestead near Winner, S.D. He completed preparation for the Episcopal ministry at Berkeley Divinity School, Middletown, Conn.
After graduation in 1918, he married Miss Elizabeth Mann of Richmond Hill, Long Island, N.Y., who had grown up in New Haven, Conn. Together the young couple went west to South Dakota to begin a joint ministry which touched the lives of countless persons, Indian and non-Indian.
The Rev. Mr. Clark leaves his widow, Elizabeth, two children and eight grandchildren. His son, David W. Clark, Jr. of Hamden, Conn., is married to the former Alice Kinsley. His daughter, Elizabeth (Betty) of Lexington, Mass., is married to Robert L. Rosenthal. Mrs. Clark will make her home at 10 Peacock Farm Road, Lexington, Mass.
He also leaves six nephews and nieces, children of his brother, the late Rev. John Booth Clark, who also served throughout his life in the Indian field. These are Mrs. Robert J. Mattheisson, John William Clark, the Rev. Paul Austin Clark, Mrs. Elizabeth Given, Mrs. Guy King, and Mrs. Lester Wrestling.
Funeral services (Tapi Wicahapi) were held at Trinity Episcopal Church, Mission, South Dakota, on the Rosebud Reservation at 4 P. M. on Sunday, July 26. The Rev. Webster Two Hawk officiated. Burial was at Mission.
Memorial gifts may be sent to the Brotherhood of Christian Unity (Hobart Eagle, Treasurer), Fort Thompson, S.D. 57339 or to Good Shepherd Mission (The Rev. Canon Harold Jones, Vicar), Fort Defiance, Arizona 86504.