I have been meaning to post these photos for a while and Life has just got busy and in the way. Here's Andy's talk from the funeral and photos I took.
Max Clark
We have come together
today to mourn the passing, and to celebrate the amazing life and legacy of Max
Clark.
Born on June 19th 1929, he
was the 4th child in a family of 8.
They grew up in a 2
bedroom home that did not have much more than an attached lean-to for a
kitchen.
At the young age of 6 his
father passed away. Max writes "I do not remember much about my father, I
remember him being sick and in bed for a couple of days before going to the
hospital.
They operated on him but
it was too late and he died shortly after." his father’s appendix had
ruptured while herding sheep. Max continues to write, "I cried and wanted
him to come back.
I went to the funeral but
was only able to peek inside."
With his father’s passing
it left his mom with a family of 6 kids to look out for. Dick was 13, Irene 11,
Ralph 9, Max 6, Rex 3, and Bob was only 6 months old.
His mom had no education
or discernable skills to earn a living so she worked any odd job that she
could. Usually cleaning houses and doing laundry.
Max remembers that on
wash day, the kids would help by hauling water from the ditch and heating it
over an open fire so that mom could clean the close on their wash board and
hang them on the fence to dry.
At the age of 7 Max went
to live with his grandma and grandpa Ralph where he helped milk cows and work
in the fields haying.
Max recalls how the
Ralph's had a cellar on the property and that grandma would always have
buttermilk stored there. So on his way in from the fields each day he would
make a stop for a nice clod glass.
When Max turned 14 he
went to live with his brother Dick and his wife Betty. During this time he was
able to attend high school where he finished out the 10th grade.
His responsibilities on
the farm wear to milk the cows. At one point they had 30 head that had to be
milked twice a day, by hand...
During this same time
period Max and his brother Dick would go to the mountains to work at the local
saw mill. It was there that he shot his first deer that started his passion for
the deer hunt.
His first deer was shot
and killed while only using a 22 rifle. This made all of the older men at the
saw mill very unhappy as most of them went without that year.
Growing up I do not
remember very many years that the family did not participate in the deer hunt.
Around the age of 16 Max
went to live with his good friends Clarence and Lola Jones. Lola was like a 2nd
mother to him and he writes about how they were very good to him.
Clarence owned a dude
ranch near Yellow stone, up Swift Creek. Max was in charge of the horses and
would often guide people into the high mountain lakes on fishing trips by horse
back.
He would often walk the
trails so that he could move rocks out of the way and keep the trails clear.
Max truly enjoyed this
job as he loved the outdoors.
This job lasted for about
2 years before moving in with his sister Irene and her husband.
Irene and Marlin had a
farm in Bluebell Utah wear Max spent the next 5 years helping on the
farm.
This is truly wear Max
considered home.
Max would often tell
stories about him and his brothers steeling chickens. How they almost got
caught, on more than one occasion and how the stolen chickens would make the
best meals.
It was not until two
nights ago that I found out that his soon to be bride and her sisters were the
ones cooking them up.
He would also tell us
stories about how much he loved tipping over out-houses.
There crowning
accomplishment being the time they tipped one over onto the door with the
occupant still inside.
If you get the chance ask
his brother Bob about it, he would be happy to explain to you the best way of
doing this...
I highly recommend it, as
he gets the same shit eating grin that Max would get on his face when talking
about the good old days.
Arlene, Max's wife of 66
years writes. “I started going with Max Clack before I was out of high school.
Sometimes he would pick me up from school.
Mama insisted that we
come home on the bus and not chase around, so we were always parked at the bus
stop when it dropped off the other kids"
After graduating high
school I moved to Salt Lake. It was not long after that Max had followed me
there.
On November 21, 1950, we
decided to get married. We did not have a car so we took the bus to the city
and county building to get our license.
We found that we could
get married that day so we decided to go ahead and do it.
After work the nested day
we found an apartment together and moved in with nothing but a few packages of
clothes.
Mama was rather upset
when she found out, but after the initial shock wore off she gave me her
blessing.
They only lived in Salt
Lake for a few short months before Max got his call to go into the army.
He left for basic
training in February of 1951. He was then sent to Japan for further training in
communications before engaging in the Korean War.
His signal corps unit was
in charge of laying down communication lines in front of the line for the
advancing troops.
They saw action during
the battle for bloody ridge wear nearly 20,00 people lost their lives
In fact they had so many
missions that Max was honorably discharged after 10 months of his 1 year term.
Upon his return in
December of 52 Max and Arlene returned to bluebell, UT where Max picked up a
construction job putting in the first telephone lines in the area.
Over the next 12 years he
and his family lived in 9 different states while he worked construction. As my
mom explains, that was 9 different states usually with several moves per
state...
Now when I say that max
worked construction, I do not mean that he swung a hammer and built
houses.
Max was way to tuff for
that, he ran power and communication lines though the areas that no one else
had tried before.
In most cases the terrane
was to rugged to get any equipment in so they dug the holes for the power poles
by hand
And physically carried
the poles in from the nearest road that may have been several miles away.
Because of this most of
his work will only be seen by a small hand full of people even though it has
made life better for countless individuals.
One of the jobs that he
was particularly proud of is the power line crossing above the green river. A
location that lots of people now reference when navigating flaming gorge.
If you ever get the
chance to see it, you will immediately understand why it was such a proud
moment in his life.
Spanning several thousand
feet across the gorge and nearly 200 feet above the water, Max work with the
team that constructed this by hand.
On December 4th, 1953 Max
and Arlene where blessed with a daughter, Julie. Who was born in Tremonton UT. and again blessed with a son Raymond on May
14th 1956 while in Woodland Washington.
Ray was born 3 week
premature weighing only 4 lbs. 13 oz. the doctors would not release him until
he reached 5 lbs.
However Max had to leave
in order to follow the job up to Palmer Alaska and was unable to stay. Once
there he found an apartment and sent for his family.
inlew of their arrival he
waited up all night for their plane that did not arrive until 7 am the
next morning so that he could hold his, now, 1 month old son for the first
time.
In August of 1965 Arlene
puts it as, “Max finally quit construction work and got a stable job at Logan
City with the power department"
Even though I believe
that Max truly loved working construction his family came first and his
children needed that stability.
They settled down in
Logan just in time for his kids to enroll in school.
Max worked for Logan City
for the next 27 years before retiring, except, I don’t think he took a single
day off in his life.
Even in the last few
months of his life he would find ways to work around the house even though he
was told not too many times.
We would often go over to
mow his lawn to find out that he had found some way of strapping his oxygen
bottle to the lawn mower so that he could push it around himself.
Or he would be attempting
to push the snow off of his driveway because he could not get his snow blower
to start.
In the time that I can
remember, my Grandpa always set the example that hard work and persistence pay
off.
He would often tell me
that if you are going to do something, you should do it right
People where naturally
drawn to him and his amazing personality. Anyone that spent five min with him
can attest that.
There are countless
stories of Max helping and serving others.
I have heard several
people say; on more than one occasion that he had a hart as big as the great
outdoors.
Whenever you ask someone
about Max their faces immediately lights up and they have a story to tell about
when he helped them with one thing or another.
Max loved his family, he
loved to hunt deer, fish and just simply be outdoors. We spent a lot of time
camping as a family, and he always looked forward to the Boswell family
reunions.
It has been said by many,
that Max was everyone’s favorite. You could always find him behind the grill at
the family reunion or chasing the kids down,
Threatening to cut the
girls pony tails off with his pocket knife or to give the boys some willer tea.
In May of 2014 Max Clark
was diagnosed with lung cancer, and in true Max fashion he set off to beat it
on his own.
After all this is Max
that we are talking about. There was nothing that stood in his way before.
Like the time he was
working construction and had to drive himself to the
hospital after having an Ulcer burst.
Stopping along the way to
ask for directions to the hospital and literally crawling his way from the
parking lot into the emergency room.
He had even survived
being electrocuted by 7700 volts while working on the main power line though Logan
City.
But as we all know cancer
does not care how tough you are or if you are the most caring person most
people will ever meet
It took Max away from his
loving wife and family way too soon. He did fight an amazing battel with cancer
and far out lasted what the Doctor's predicted.
He leaves us with this
amazing legacy of how to love, how to work and a solid foundation for others to
follow in his footsteps.
I truly believe that Max
is walking the trail, moving rocks and other obstacles out of the way so that
his family can easily follow him in the next life.
Until we meet again, you
will truly be missed.
