Memorial Services will be Friday, Oct 14 at 11 a.m. at the Historic Evergreen Chapel, located inside Evergreen Cemetery.
 Norm Clark |
A Westside native, Mr. Clark and his wife Luana were married 58 years and raised four children.
The couple moved to Arizona two years ago for health reasons. The cause of death was cancer.
Mr. Clark was born Nov. 13, 1933, to Lester and Kaola Clark.
In 1931, Lester had started the Clark's station at 2715 W. Colorado Ave. with his brother Goodhand Clark. For the next 55 years, it was to be one of the major stations on the Westside.
Norm Clark started working at the station at a young age, he recalled in a taped interview that appeared in two parts in the Westside Pioneer (Sept. 14 and 21, 2006): “I was in grade school when I used to go over there every night and help Dad close up. I'd count the money and if I found any rare Indianheads or anything like that I could keep them. I had quite a collection of them over the years. Before I was 16, I used to drive all the cars around and put them on a hoist. It was quite a treat, you know, to do that. And I worked every night after school in high school, summers too.”
He and Luana were in the same grade together at West Junior and Colorado Springs High School. They were married Nov. 16, 1952.
After a year of college and two years in the Marine Corps, Mr. Clark returned to Colorado Springs and to the Clark's station in 1955. He helped his father manage the station and eventually a statewide chain of 21 stations before Clark's was bought out by Diamond Shamrock in 1986.
For a number of years, Mr. Clark was involved with the revitalization of Old Colorado City, which was led by local business people. “The Colorado Commercial Club started in 1975, Gene Brent and myself, and Ed Schoch and Bea Yandura,” Mr. Clark related in the interview. “They said Dave Hughes would be a good man, so he came on to the Commercial Club. And then Don Bates and Wes Colbrunn, they started up the Old Colorado City Development Company; there were some other folks too. I was president of the Commercial Club for I don't know how long, and I stayed on for quite a few years and watched it develop and get turned around.”
In his later years, Mr. Clark worked in real estate, both here and in Arizona.
He is also survived by two sons, Doug and Jeff Clark; and two daughters, Cindy and Alecia; several grandchildren; a great-grandchild; two brothers; and numerous nieces and nephews. He also remained close all his life with his cousin, Fred Clark, (whom he'd grown up with).
In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to the Old Colorado City Historical Society, 1 S. 24th St., Colorado Springs, CO 80904, in memory of Norm Clark.
Editor's note: The full text of the two-part Westside Pioneer interview with Norm Clark can be found at westsidepioneer.com in our archives for the year 2006 under the category of “In their own words.”
Westside Pioneer article