Glenda Clark, of Sheffield Village, Ohio, beloved wife and mother, grandmother, great-grandmother and great-great-grandmother of 17 descendants passed away on Tuesday, Dec. 20, at her residence. She was born on Oct. 23, 1925, in Phalanx Station, Ohio, and was a graduate of Braceville High School in a war-diminished class of 17 students in 1944. Glenda Colton married William J. (Bill) Clark on Oct. 29, 1944, a union which was a life-long partnership in the truest sense of the word. The Clarks met in the third grade and an eternal love-match began soon afterward. Glenda got an early start in the working world, serving as a National Youth Administration office worker during her final two years in high school and spending a summer doing office work at the Peerless Electric, Warren, Ohio. She started employment at Packard Electric in Warren as an inspector of the wiring harnesses for the B-29 bomber on the same day her future husband reported for duty in the U.S. Navy during World War II.
As family life resumed after the war, Glenda contributed to the family income in many ways: running punch presses at Brown Lipe Chapin, Elyria, Ohio, and Kirkwood Commutator, Cleveland, Ohio; applying wood transfers to station wagons at Fisher Body, Euclid, Ohio; as a cafeteria worker at Rocky River (Ohio) High School and school secretary of Forest View Elementary in Bay Village; and finally as the bookkeeping machine operator at Mansfield (Pennsylvania) State College.
As a young grandmother, Mrs. Clark entered Mansfield State College and earned her degree and teaching certification in three years. During a 20-year teaching career in Olmsted Falls and Ashtabula, Ohio, she added a master’s degree at Ohio State University.
Glenda and Bill Clark have two children: Cheryl Clark, of Sheffield Lake, Ohio, and Jim (Rita) Clark of Brecksville, Ohio; and four grandchildren: Kirk (Lisa) Risseler, Bay Village, Ohio; Cari (Kirk) Maggio, Glen Arm, Md.; Tracy Clark Mora (deceased); and Kim (Ted) Wypasek, Strongsville, Ohio. Her great-grandchildren number 10: Mia, Lexi, Julia and Nick Mora, Parma, Ohio; Dom and Danielle Maggio, Glen Arm, Md.; and Kayla, Sean, Justin and Brayden Wypasek, Strongsville, Ohio. Leo Ricci, Parma, Ohio, is the first of the great-great-grandchildren. Glenda was preceded in death by her parents, Charles and Ruby Fusselman Colton. She lived with neighbors, Cal and Elsie Richards (deceased), from the age of 12 until the Clark family occupied their first dwelling in the Baldwin-Wallace Veterans Trailer Park, Berea, Ohio.
Mrs. Clark was a talented photographer, acting as the game photographer for her coach husband for Mansfield State College and Baldwin-Wallace College basketball teams, and preparing videos for grant applications for youth drug awareness programs for Navajo Indians in New Mexico. Glenda was pressed into service again as she served as the photographer of the official magazine of the Naval Minewarfare Association for several years. She was also secretary of the Echo Fire Protection Committee, starting a long involvement with the Pagosa Fire Protection District.
The Glenda and Bill partnering leadership was also illustrated during their 18 years in the mountains of Colorado by the couple serving as co-presidents of the Supper Fellowship of the Community United Methodist Church in Pagosa Springs, an organization which conducted a huge annual project of making wreaths from native blue spruce. They later became co-chairpersons for Archuleta County in a successful drive to raise funds for the long-overdue World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C.
Glenda grew up in the Braceville (Ohio) Christian Church, serving that congregation and Westlake (Ohio) Christian Church as choir member and deaconess, and was a deaconess at First Christian Church, Ashtabula, Ohio.
Funeral services were at the James Funeral Home in Newton Falls on Tuesday Dec. 27, at noon with the Rev. Jon Pratt officiating. Glenda was laid at Braceville Cemetery in Braceville, Ohio.
Arrangements have been entrusted to the James Funeral Home 8 East Broad St. Newton Falls, OH 44444 (330)872-5440. Family and friends may view her obituary online or send condolences by visiting www.jamesfuneralhomeinc.com.
