June 8, 1918 – Tuesday, October 24, 2012
Service Information
Fort Snelling Memorial Chapel
Friday, November 2nd, 2012
10:30 A,M.
Visitation Information
Robert Kenneth Clark, age 94, of Brooklyn Park passed away on Wednesday, October 24, 2012 at Crystal Care Center in Crystal, Minnesota.
-He was born on June 8, 1918 in Bemidji, the son of Walter & Eva Shadio Clark.
-Robert spent his childhood as eldest of three children (Bob, Bud, Lois) working hard catching minnows & digging up worms to sell to fishermen by Lake Bemidji to get a little money. He also had a paper-route he used to do with his bulldog “Chubby”. Bob would run forgotten lunches down to
Dad, a railroad man. He would sometimes hunt on the way home from school to supply meat to his mom during the hard depression years. He loved playing trombone in his high school band but dropped-out at age sixteen to join CCC’s to help out the family income.
-At age nineteen, Robert met Rose Marie Postiglione in Minneapolis at the diner where she worked & three months later they were married in 1938. In the course of their fifty-six year happy marriage, they raised two children. A son was born in 1943 & later that year Bob got drafted in the
U.S. Navy. The family traveled around the country to different Navy bases until settling in San Diego. Then Bob at age twenty-seven & another “older guy” were allowed to serve at Fallon Naval Air Base in Nevada dessert near Reno, just before his aircraft carrier went out into Pacific to be sunk by the Japanese. Bob had served on his ship below the flight deck maintaining aircraft & those guys were killed when the Japanese bomb hit. Happily, he was discharged in 1945 & they returned to Minneapolis. Their family of three was increased when they were blessed with a baby girl in 1952, after several miscarriages.
-Bob & Rose started investing in real-estate after WWII (Rose’s Italian father sold them their 1st duplex) and lived in each of their many properties. He also worked as machinist for forty ears at Electric Machinery Manufacturing Company in Northeast Minneapolis. Bob & Rose loved traveling
around the world. Retirement wasn’t that sweet because he lost his wife of fifty-six years in 1993.
-Survived by a son: Dennis (Elaine) Clark of Anoka and daughter:
Deborah (Bob) Johnsen of Chaska; three grandchildren: Kathy Stangeland, Steve Clark, Ben Johnsen; sister: Lois Young of Oregon; other relatives & friends.
-A memorial service for Robert Clark will be held on Friday, November 2nd at 10:30 A.M. at Fort Snelling Memorial Chapel. Interment with military rites & honor guard will follow at 12 Noon at Fort Snelling National Cemetery Assembly #4.
-The Peterson Chapel St. Michael-Albertville Funeral Home is serving the family. Online condolences may be made to www.thepetersonchapel.com