OBITUARY
CLARK, Nathan M. Died 23 June 2011
U
ncle, real and imaginary to many. Born in Street, Somerset, England on July 17, 1916 to a family of shoemakers, Clarks Shoes. Nathan had a long and varied life.
As a young man he resisted discipline. He built cars. He then
raced them as fast as possible. This ended when he crashed and broke both ankles. They never recovered properly. He went up to Oxford University, but could not stand the undergraduate life.
He volunteered to drive ambulances in the Spanish Civil War. He
took up steeplechase riding, living in the Irish Republic, saying that was where the best horses were, starving himself to loose weight so as to make himself more competitive. Then came the 2nd World War. Because he was resident in the Irish Republic, he was not subject to English conscription. He therefore could volunteer to join what ever branch of the British military he chose. He chose the Indian Army, and was accepted despite crooked ankles.
Shipped to India he was quickly appointed to the transport
section, rising ultimately to Lieutenant Colonel. He was involved in building the Burma Road. He came to love all things Indian, including an appreciation of Indian dance. He came to know all the senior officers of the Indian Army with a friendship which continued throughout his life. Late in life, when in India he could call up an acquaintance from the war and be welcomed with open arms although neither had seen the other in twenty years.
Demobilized he returned to England in 1947 and joined the Clark
business with special responsibility to develop the export business and foreign operations. He had a lively interest in shoe making techniques and allied this with good style sense. The most famous result is the Clarks “Desert Boot”, still made and sold in volume.
Like so many young men returning from the war he found it
difficult to settle down to an organized job. He decided Clarks was not for him, left and went to the United States to seek his fortune. He set up in partnership with Nancy Knox. She was the salesman, he the developer and stylist. Their customers were upper end retailers and department stores. It was a successful partnership, allowing Nathan the freedom to travel and find style and not be desk tied. The partnership continued into the late 1950's when Nathan lost interest.
Nathan became interested in Modern American Dance. Never as a
dancer, but as critic, adviser and coach. He came to know Martha Graham and other leaders. He became a major benefactor of the annual Dance Festival held at Duke University in North Carolina he was sought out as adviser and mentor.
18 • FOOTWEAR TODAY • AUGUST 2011
Nathan Clark He was known to many aspiring young dancers. It was impossible
to go with him into any Greenwich Village restaurant without being welcomed by some lithesome young woman.
In the early 1980s he became concerned with the direction Clarks
Shoes was going in. He doubted the leadership's commitment and ability, especially the need to move from domestic manufacturing to importing. He moved to England. With others he campaigned for change, without seeing that the result might be a lesser involvement of the Clark Family. Something he regretted in later life.
He then returned to America and tried to get young family members interested in shoemaking. He continued to push India as the place to develop as a source for shoes, recognizing the dangers of getting too dependent on China as a supplier. To the end he was actively involved in shoe making, developing shoes in his kitchen. At the end he was still thinking about these shoes.
He will be sorely missed by all those who met him for his interest and enthusiasm for them as people. To all he was an unconventional uncle of myriad interests and enthusiasms.
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