Norfolk City Virginia USGenWeb Archives Obituaries.....Clark, John I. May 3, 1949
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Robert Woolfitt http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00034.html#0008401 November 20, 2022, 12:38 pm

Virginian-Pilot  May 4, 1949
John I. Clark, Tow Business Officia1, Dies

Civic and Business, Waterfront Leader; Funeral Tomorrow

Capt. John Ignatius Clark, 79, president of Joseph M. Clark & Brother, Inc., and 
secretary-treasurer of the Wood Towing Corporation, died yesterday at 3 a.m. at 
his residence, 1207 Stockley Gardens, after more than a year of declining health 
and a period of hospitalization four months ago.

Captain Clark was associated with Norfolk waterfront business for more than 60 
years and later became a leader in other business and civic circles of the city.

He was born February 29, 1870, in Berkley, then a part of Norfolk County, where 
his grandfather, a square-rigger sailor, had settled. His parents were Capt. 
William H. and Annie Glennan Clark.

His father owned a small tug, the N. W. A. Cobb, working on Chesapeake and the 
North Carolina Sounds aboard which he laid the foundations of his business 
success.

Fresh Water Service

Later Capt. William Clark and his eldest son, Joseph M. Clark, added a fresh water 
supply service for merchant and naval vessels in Hampton Roads. The business 
started with a small sail vessel and expanded first to a small steamer, the Mary 
and Joe, then to a larger steamer, named the John L. Clark, after the younger, 
brother.

Joseph M. Clark & Brother continued to operate the water supply service after the 
death of their father, and added a tug business in Norfolk harbor about 1900, 
which continued to flourish. Up to World War I, it was the only business supplying 
the service at this port. Throughout the war, the firm developed a reputation of 
no delays for water supply, in spite of difficult labor conditions.

Capt. John I. Clark and another brother, E. A. Clark, expanded into shore business 
about 1910 by organizing the Berkley Machine Works and Foundry Company, of which 
he was vice president for 10 years. The business was sold in 1920.

Comment By Wood

About the same time, he acquired stock in the Wood Towing Corporation, then 
organizing, and served on its board of directors until his death. Capt. Joseph D. 
Wood, head of the corporation, said of Captain Clark, his lifelong friend and 
business partner, “He devoted his life, his time and his thoughts to his business, 
and was a friend to man.... I regarded him as one of Norfolk’s best citizens....A 
kind and generous Irishman, he had a host of friends.”

He also held directorships in the Seaboard Citizens National Bank and the Twin 
City Building Association, and was a member of the board of De Paul Hospital. He 
was a member of the Hampton Roads Terminal Corporation, the Hampton Roads Maritime 
Association, the Norfolk Association of Commerce, the Tidewater Automobile 
Association and Norfolk Lodge No. 38, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.

He was active in the Red Cross and served as Norfolk City representative on the 
board of directors of the Norfolk Community Fund.

He was a member of the Sacred Heart Catholic Church and its Holy Name Society, and 
of the Norfolk Council of the Knights of Columbus.

His wife, the former Miss Julia Hafner, of Highland, Ill., whom he married in 
1901, survives; also a sister, Mrs. Annie Miller Smith, of Norfolk.

Rosary services will be held tonight at 7:30 o’clock at the residence. The body 
will be taken to the Sacred Heart Church tomorrow at 10 a.m. for funeral services. 
Burial will be in St. Mary’s Cemetery. 

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