Harry Clark Jr.

Harry Clark Jr. passed away peacefully on September 15, 2021. He was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, shortly before the Great Depression, on December 20, 1928 to Harry Clark, Sr. and Dorothy Faye Toms Clark. His father was a mechanic and his mother a homemaker who died from appendicitis when Harry was 4 years old. Harry had two brothers and a sister. After his mother’s death a grandmother, in St. Joseph, Missouri, where the family settled, tried to help raise the four children but due to health and economic conditions, the three boys were sent to the Noyes Orphanage in St. Joseph, known locally as the “Home for the Little Wanderers”. Their sister went to live with the nuns at Mount St. Scholastica in Atchison, Kansas. Harry said that the people at the home in St. Joe were wonderful to the children. They didn’t have luxuries, but they always had food, clothes, a place to sleep, and they felt very safe. The orphanage was next to a golf course and Harry, along with some of the other boys, was able to earn a little money caddying. Always an active child, he began playing golf and developed a lifelong interest in the game as well as most sports, including boxing. As a youngster, Harry was a Golden Gloves champion in his weight class.

At age 16, in 1945, while a student at Lafayette High School in St. Joseph, Harry begged his reluctant father to sign papers so he could join the Navy. World War II had just ended and the military was beginning to bring home those who had been serving overseas. They were accepting very young men as replacements for these returning servicemen. Harry served two hitches in the Navy – one before finishing high school and a second after graduating from high school in 1950. At Lafayette, he was active in student leadership roles and excelled in football. While in the Navy, he was assigned duty aboard a tug boat travelling between Hawaii and Japan, often through heavy storms and blazing sun. He spent two years doing this. After his first hitch, he returned to St. Joseph to finish high school. Upon graduation, he signed up with the Navy for his second hitch. He served in Cuba and Italy during part of this enlistment. One of his duties in Naples, Italy included working at the Naval base gym where he began playing tennis, which became another lifelong pursuit.

He had met his future wife, Shila McVey, while in high school, and they were married on January 26, 1957. Shila was 24 and Harry was 29 years old. After his return to civilian life, Harry held several jobs to supplement his income while attending college on the G.I. Bill. He graduated from Maryville College (Northwestern Missouri State University).

Harry became one of the earliest staff archivists at the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library in 1958, just one year after the building’s dedication. Harry worked with and became good friends with many of the graduate students, university professors and writers who came to do research there. If they were so inclined and lucky enough, he might invite them for some vigorous exercise on the tennis court. You probably wouldn’t win, but you always had fun even losing to Harry. Like any smart athlete, he knew that was what kept an opponent and friend coming back for more competition. For many years his Missouri automobile license plate read PLA-10S. He followed that advice to the maximum as long as he was able to walk out on the court.
At the Truman Library, Harry soon became the library’s first declassification officer for the vast amount, at that time, of security classified material in the library’s manuscript holdings. He continued to discharge this highly exacting responsibility until his retirement in 1985.

Harry was preceded in death by his parents and three siblings. He is survived by his wife, Shila, of 64 years and his brother-in-law Robert McVey and Bob’s wife, Betty, and their daughters Jeanie McVey Macaulay and Luann McVey, as well as Harry and Shila’s grand and great-grand nieces and nephews. The family is most grateful to Christ United Methodist Church and to hospice and especially to Barbara DeBusk who watched over their needs during the last couple of years.

Harry never complained about the circumstances of his early life. And, although he endured such in his later years, he also seldom admitted to severe physical pain. Harry was a humble and unassuming man, a loving husband to his dear soulmate, Shila, and loved his God.

Services will be held at the gravesite at St. Joseph Memorial Park Cemetery in St. Joseph, MO, on September 21 at 2 PM. Friends and family are welcome. Correspondents may be sent to Speaks Suburban Chapel, 18020 E. 39th Street, Independence, MO 64055, and they will be forwarded to the family. Online condolences may be expressed to the family at www.speakschapel.com (Arrangements: Speaks Suburban Chapel (816) 373-3600).