Steelville Star-Crawford Mirror, Steelville, Crawford Co. MO
Local Obituaries for the Week of August 30, 2001
Clark S. Zucker
Clark Zucker, a long-time resident and community leader in Crawford County,
passed away on Wednesday, August 15, 2001, after a brief battle with
cancer. He was 87. Mr. Zucker is survived by his sons, David Clark Zucker
and wife, Deborah, of Rolling Hills, California, and Theodore Zucker and
wife, Bernadette, of Louisville, Kentucky; his grandson, William Zucker of
Rollings Hills; his granddaughter, Jill Kneer of Louisville; his sister,
Esther Stoeppelmann, of Scottsdale, Arizona and by many nephews and nieces
around the country. Clark's wife of 58 years, Georgia Sellers Zucker,
passed away in 1998.
Clark was born in Webster Groves, Missouri on August 10, 1914, one of four
children of David Zucker and Hazel Florence Pierce. He attended Webster
Groves public schools, the Missouri Military Academy, St. Louis University
High School, and Washington University School of Fine Arts. He and his
family were members of the Emmanuel Episcopal Church of Webster Groves.
His spirited involvement in his community is a long standing family
tradition. His father was a St. Louis business man and newspaper publisher
who served in the Missouri National Guard during the Spanish American War.
His grandfather, Simon Zucker, immigrated from Germany in 1855, served in
the US Army in several Indian Campaigns and during the Civil War. Other
branches of the family go back to Abraham Clark, a member of the
Continental Congress from New Jersey and a signer of the Declaration of
Independence and to Benjamin Disraeli, Prime Minister of Great Britain in
the 1860s and 70s.
Baseball and aviation were among Clark's passions and interests. He was a
third generation Cardinal Fan and as a young man attended open try-outs for
the Cardinals. He was offered a contract to join the Cardinal minor league
farm system, but chose instead to cast his lot with aviation. During the
Great Depression, he worked at various jobs to earn money for flying
lessons. His adventure as a pilot led him eventually to become an Air
Traffic Controller.
He served our nation as an Air Traffic Controller with the Federal Aviation
Agency (and its predecessor agencies) from 1939 to 1964. During World War
II, Clark and the other controllers were frozen in civil service and sent
where they were needed to support the war effort. Clark and his bride,
Georgia, were dispatched to Kansas, Florida, and Tennessee where Clark set
up new airports and air traffic control systems. Clark was also sent to
Alaska to help the Navy and Army Corps prepare for the recovery of the
Aleutian Islands from the Japanese.
For nearly 20 years after the war, Clark worked at the St. Louis airport
and was a founding member of the Air Traffic Controllers Association, the
forerunner of PATCO, the controllers union. Clark was on duty when a
portion of the nation's fleet of B-47 strategic nuclear bombers was
deployed to St. Louis during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. When he
retired in 1964, Clark was one of the most senior air traffic control
supervisors in the country.
Clark moved his family from St. Louis to a farm near Cuba, Missouri, in
1955. Though he continued to work as an Air Traffic Controller at the St.
Louis airport, commuting from the farm every day, he became active in local
civic affairs almost immediately. He was a 4-H leader and a founding member
of the Cuba Community Athletic Association, which promoted a greatly
expanded Little League Baseball program for young boys in the area. Along
with his wife, Georgia, he helped start the Two Score Plus Club for area
senior citizens and the Cuba Youth Center. Clark was a founding member of
the Optimists Club in Cuba and was its charter president. He also was a
member of the Crawford County Fair Board.
Clark pursued his passion for baseball as the player-manager of the Cuba
Men's team in the late 1950s and continued to play as a switch hitting
first baseman until age 47. That year he tried to stretch a single into a
triple during an "Old Timers" game in Steelville. When sliding into 3rd, he
suffered a knee injury that put him on the bench for good.
When Clark retired from Civil Service in 1964, he was at last able to
participate in politics. That year he became a member of the Crawford
County Democratic Central Committee from Oak Hill Township and was
immediately elected county chairman. His leadership helped organize a
successful campaign in support of local Democratic party candidates in the
1964 election. He continued to serve on the County Committee for many years
and was a long time president of the Crawford County Democratic Club.
Another passion in Clark's life was bowling. He participated in various
leagues over 40 year until arthritis put an end to his active bowling in
1999. For his decades of service to bowling leagues throughout Missouri,
Clark was inducted into the South Central Missouri Bowlers Hall of Fame in
1998.
In the late 1960s, Clark teamed up with John Stevens, Marion Sabatino and
other local musicians to form "The Country Cousins." That band entertained
friends and neighbors for several years and performed as a featured act at
the Crawford County Fair in 1969.
For nearly 30 years Clark has been a dedicated member of the Masonic Order.
He twice served as Worshipful Master of the Cuba Lodge. He was selected
eight times as Worthy Patron of the Cuba and Steelville chapters of the
Eastern Star. In recent years, Clark has been active in Rolla in the Royal
Arch Masons, the Knights Templar, Eastern Star and White Shrine. Clark's
passing will be deeply felt by his Brothers and Sisters.
After he retired from federal government service, Clark worked for short
time at the Cuba Free Press. He opened a real estate office and for more
than 30 years operated the Zucker Tax Service, serving clients throughout
Crawford County until his illness forced him to close, earlier this year.
Memorial services were held at the Britton Funeral Home in Cuba, followed
by interment on August 18 next to his late wife in the Sellers Cemetery
near Davisville, Missouri.
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Reprinted with permission from the Obituary page of the
Steelville Star-Crawford Mirror Web site.
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