Roy Clyde Clark

{{Infobox person

| name = Roy Clyde Clark

| image =

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| birth_name =

| birth_date = {{birth-date|July 24, 1920}}

| birth_place = Mobile, Alabama, U.S.

| death_date = {{death-date and age|May 27, 2014|July 24, 1920}}

| death_place = Nashville, Tennessee, U.S.

| death_cause =

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| education =

| alma mater = Millsaps College
Yale Divinity School

| employer =

| occupation = Clergyman

| spouse = {{plainlist|

Esther Maddox
Marion Salisbury Hall

}}

| children = 2 daughters

}}

Roy Clyde Clark (July 24, 1920 - May 27, 2014) was an American bishop of the United Methodist Church, elected in 1980.

Early life

Clark was born on July 24, 1920, in Mobile, Alabama.{{cite news|title=Obituaries: Roy Clyde Clark|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/105330182/?terms=%22Roy%2BClark%22|access-date=December 11, 2017|work=The Tennessean|date=June 2, 2014|page=13A|via=Newspapers.com|url-access=registration }}{{cite web |last=Hahn |first=Heather |date=May 28, 2014 |title=Bishop Clark, theologian, relief leader, dies at 93 |url=http://www.umc.org/news-and-media/bishop-clark-theologian-relief-leader-dies-at-93 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150322070602/http://www.umc.org:80/news-and-media/bishop-clark-theologian-relief-leader-dies-at-93 |archive-date=March 22, 2015 |access-date=December 11, 2017 |website=UMC.org}} His father, C. C. Clark, was a Methodist minister in Gulfport, Mississippi.{{cite news|title=Society. Maddox-Clark Engagement announced; Marriage to be Said 7th June |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/252059824/?terms=%22Roy%2BClyde%2BClark%22|access-date=December 11, 2017|work=McComb Daily Journal|date=May 11, 1945|page=3|location=McComb, Mississippi|via=Newspapers.com|url-access=registration }}

Clark earned the B.A. degree from Millsaps College in 1941 and the Bachelor of Divinity degree from Yale Divinity School in 1944. He also has been awarded honorary doctorates from Millsaps College and Columbia College in South Carolina.

Career

Clark was ordained deacon in 1944 by Bishop J.L. Decell and Elder in 1946 by Bishop U.V.W. Darlington. Roy became a member of the Mississippi Annual Conference and held five different pastorates there between 1944 and 1963: Eastlawn, Pascagoula; Decell Memorial, Wesson; Centerville; Forest; and Capitol Street in Jackson. He pastored St. John's United Methodist Church in Memphis, Tennessee, from 1963 through 1967. He was the pastor of West End United Methodist Church in Nashville, Tennessee, from 1967 to 1980.

Clark was elected to the episcopacy in 1980 by the Southeastern Jurisdictional Conference of the UMC. He was assigned to the Columbia, South Carolina Episcopal Area (the South Carolina Annual Conference), where he served until his retirement in 1988. As a bishop he also served as a member of the U.M. General Board of Global Ministries (1980–88), serving as President of the UM Committee on Relief Program Department of the Board (1984–88).

After retiring from the active episcopacy, Bishop Clark served as executive director of the Committee on Episcopal Initiatives for Ministry and Mission of the U.M. Council of Bishops.{{citation needed|date=December 2017}} As such he gave leadership in the development of the council's initiative on “Vital Congregations-Faithful Disciples.”{{citation needed|date=December 2017}} He also served as an adjunct faculty member of the Memphis Theological Seminary (an institution of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church but recognized also by the UMC) and of the Vanderbilt Divinity School. He was listed as bishop-in-residence at the West End Church in Nashville, whose pastorate he once held.{{citation needed|date=December 2017}}

Regarding homosexuality, Clark said he did not approve of its practise. He explained, "I can't give my approval, but I can say that God loves you."{{cite news|last1=Crowe|first1=Adell|title=Bucking Strong Tides. Church Moral Voice of Society: Pastor|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/111859239/?terms=%22church%2Bmoral%2Bvoice%2Bof%2Bsociety%22|access-date=December 11, 2017|work=The Tennessean|date=June 21, 1980|page=5|via=Newspapers.com|url-access=registration }}

Personal life and death

Clark married Esther Maddox of McComb, Mississippi, on 7 June 1945. They had two daughters, Lynn Blanton Clark and Susan McEwen Clark, and two grandsons. After Esther's death on 8 April 1991, Bishop Clark married Marion Salisbury Hall on 4 April 1992.

Clark died on May 27, 2014, in Nashville, Tennessee.

References

InfoServ, the official information service of The United Methodist Church. [http://archives.umc.org/interior.asp?ptid=1&mid=1244]
The Council of Bishops of the United Methodist Church [http://archives.umc.org/interior.asp?ptid=1&mid=5855]

Roy Clyde Clark

Early life

Career

Personal life and death

References

See also