Ronald Clark

Ronald (Ron) Paul Clark of Aurora, Colorado, passed into the arms of Jesus due to heart issues during outpatient kidney stone surgery on April 17, 2024, in Aurora. He had been battling heart, lung, and mobility issues for the past several years. Ron is the husband of Laurie Greene Clark, a Durand High School graduate.
Ron, an only child, was born February 25, 1946, to Paul Clarence Clark and Iris Huntrods Clark in Yuma, Arizona. His father died when Ron was only three, and his mother then moved to Iowa to be with family. She remarried five years later, and the family then moved back to Arizona for his mother's health.
Ron graduated from Phoenix Christian High School and then took classes at Arizona Bible College in the Phoenix area. He spent three months on a short-term mission with the North American Indian Mission (now North American Indigenous Mission) on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, where he loved ministering to the native Indian families in small native villages there. He studied journalism at Phoenix College, graphic arts and press operations at Maricopa Technical College, and linotype operations/newspaper production at the University of Iowa. He worked several years for printing companies in the Phoenix area.
In 1970 Ron moved to the Denver area, where he was in the printing, imaging, and fine paper industry most of his working years. He worked at Hoffman & Associates in Lakewood for nearly 13 years. He also worked in the Denver area for Dixon Paper Company (now Xpedex), Rocky Mountain BankCard System, Custom Tape & Label, Information Handling Services, Qwest Communications, and Kong Company.
Ron graduated from the Denver Police Reserve Academy in police science/law enforcement. He was a Certified Denver Reserve Police Officer for three years in the mid-1970s until his hearing loss became too great to safely continue. During this time, he was part of the Project SCAR anti-burglary unit. He also arrested two men who were on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted List. Ron received a Letter of Commendation for valor from the Denver Police Division Chief for putting his own life in danger when saving another police officer's life during a sniper attack. Due to that incident, he was made an honorary member of the County Sheriffs of Colorado.
A great music lover, Ron played trumpet in high school and later in the Denver Concert Band, and sang in local small groups during his high school and college years, as well as briefly with the 16 Singing Men. His worsening hearing eventually caused him to have to leave church choir. After Laurie moved from Illinois to Colorado in 1978, Ron met her at a church picnic and baseball game. Their wedding was the following June, so they were happily married for just under 45 years.
He also had a great love of photography, especially of nature and people, and had a 27-year correspondence with a photographer friend in England who visited him twice in Colorado. Ron took a correspondence photography curriculum from the New York Institute of Photography. He also was a member of the International Freelance Photographers Organization and a charter member of the Eastman Kodak Viewfinders Forum.
Ron loved people and believed in encouraging and cheering up others with his own computer-generated greeting card ministry over the years. He also enjoyed mingling with his Heather Gardens neighbors in Aurora. He liked to joke around with his doctors, and most of his doctors expressed that they thought he was a pretty special guy. He loved the Lord since he was saved at the age of 8, and loved his church family (especially the choir) at Cherry Creek Presbyterian Church in Englewood, Colorado, and the local Heather Gardens Chapel--via video streaming in the later years due to his health issues.
A lover of nature, among other trips Ron and wife Laurie took a 40th wedding anniversary breathtaking Alaskan cruise. He also enjoyed traveling with family and visiting family in Iowa, Illinois, and other parts of the Midwest.
Ron is survived by his wife, Laurie Greene Clark of Aurora, Colorado; two aunts in Iowa; several nieces and nephews in Colorado and Indiana; and numerous cousins in the Midwest and Arizona. He will be greatly missed!
A funeral ceremony will be held at 11:00 a.m., Thursday, April 25, 2024 at McCorkle Funeral Home - Durand Chapel, 101 W. Main Street, Durand, IL with Pastor Bob Kolb of Faith Community Church officiating. Burial in Oakland Cemetery, Durand, IL.