Reverend Patricia Clark

1944 - 2022

Patricia Rose Persch Clark
1944-2022
Patricia Rose Persch Clark was born December 15, 1944, in El Paso, Texas. She died from Covid pneumonia on February 3, 2022, in Houston, Texas. She was preceded in death by parents Harold and Marie Persch, Sister Barbara Persch Poindexter, and grandmother Rose Cecelia Miller Schuck. She is survived by her husband of 57 years, Forrest H. Clark, daughter, Emi Clark and partner Andy Bernstein, son Trevor Clark and wife Kim Tackitt Clark; three grandchildren, Collin and Sadie Dowhan, Emilie Hunter and husband Austin Hunter and great grandson, Tatum Clark Hunter.
Pat graduated from Jefferson High School in San Antonio, Texas, and studied at the University of the Americas in Mexico City before earning degrees in Spanish and History from UT Austin. She worked as a reporter for KTRH news radio. She interviewed four Presidents in addition to many other dignitaries. She loved election night reporting the most, but her main beat was the Harris County Criminal Courthouse. She was the first woman reporter in Texas to be invited to witness an execution in Huntsville.
Pat left KTRH deciding to tell "good news over bad" and chose to enter the ministry; continuing her education at the Houston Graduate School of Theology and Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary where she earned two Masters of Divinity and a Certificate in Spiritual Formation. She also earned her Creative Journal Expressive Arts Certification through art therapist Lucia Capacchione.
During her ministry in Texas, she served 8 different churches: Pilgrim Presbyterian Church in Gonzales County, St. Francis Presbyterian Church in Fort Worth, First Presbyterian Church in Texas City, First Presbyterian Church in Dickinson, Spring Branch Presbyterian Church in Houston, St. Stephen Presbyterian Church, Houston, First Presbyterian Church in Vidor, and St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church in Houston.
During her 12 year pastorate at St. Stephen Pat organized a "Theology and Film" series, held retreats at her farm in Shiner, and oversaw such ministries as the church food pantry and children's programs. She was instrumental in St. Stephen's creation of a labyrinth prayer path and community garden.
She served on the Committee on Ministry, was Chair for the General Council, and 2011's Moderator of the Presbytery of New Covenant. Most recently she was Co-Chair of the Congregational Care Committee. She also served on the Board of Brazos Towers.
A P.T. scan in 2015 showed her body riddled with cancer from her groin to her neck. Intuitively, she started a journaling process she labeled "kindergarten art." As the chemo did its healing work, she did her own inner healing work using simple art, so simple that even a child in kindergarten could do it. Her book, Feeling the Shift: Cancer, Faith and Kindergarten Art documents her journey and offers guidance to all who would undertake this important, transforming work.
For fun and relaxation she spent time at her family farm in Shiner, traveled, wrote, went to movies, and dreamed of where she would travel next. Pat was a loving wife, mother, grandmother and great grandmother, a mentor to many, and a friend to anyone she met.