Archives West Finding Aid

Historian, journalist, and musician Richard E. “Dick” Clark was born in 1930 and raised near Blaine, Washington. He earned a BA in music from Western Washington College of Education (now Western Washington University) (1952), a Master of Divinity degree from the American Baptist Seminary of the West (1955), an MA in sociology from WWU (1970), and an MA in humanities from California State University, Dominguez Hills (1989).

In 1955, Clark became pastor of the First Baptist Church in Pincher Creek, Alberta. He left four years later when church leaders questioned his non-literal interpretation of the Bible. In 1960, he was ordained a priest of the Anglican Church of Canada and served in Calgary from 1961 to 1967 before leaving the ministry in 1969.

Clark later taught sociology at the School of the Ozarks (1971), Southwest Missouri State University (1971-72), Whatcom Community College (1972-73), and at US Air Force and Coast Guard sites in Alaska for Chapman College (1977-1983). From 1984 to 1994, he worked as a journalist for the Westside Record-Journal in Ferndale and Blaine, Washington.

Clark was the author of several books, including Point Roberts, USA: The History of a Canadian Enclave (1980) and Sam Hill’s Peace Arch: Remembrance of Things Past (2005). Many of his newspaper articles also deal with the subject of the Peace Arch monument in Blaine. Riding the Carousel with God (2008) is a memoir of his religious journey.

A certified music teacher, Clark opened a private piano studio after retiring from journalism. In 1990, he founded a classical music movement that later became the Pacific Arts Association, a community non-profit dedicated to promoting concerts and music education in Clark’s hometown of Blaine.

Richard Clark died on May 26, 2012.