ORONO – Lewis E. Clark, 79, of Gardner Road, died Oct. 25, 2006, at Emerson Hospital, Concord, Mass., after a brief illness. He was born Jan. 18, 1927, in Gloucester, Mass., the son of Robert A. and Rosa E. (Gagne) Clark. Mr. Clark grew up on a farm in North Jay and was a 1944 graduate of Wilton Academy. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in agricultural economics from the University of Maine in 1950 and a master’s degree from Cornell University in 1951. He was a member of Alpha Zeta, Phi Kappa Phi and Epsilon Sigma Phi honorary fraternities. Mr. Clark was a U.S. Army veteran of World War II with service in Germany. He was a member of the American Legion and a life member of VFW Post No. 3381. From 1951 to 1954, he was employed as a loan officer with Cooperative Farm Credit in New York and Maine. During the period from 1955 to 1967 he was employed by the University of Maine – Orono, where he served as extension service agricultural business specialist and associate professor of agricultural business and economics. After that, he served as a foreign service officer with the U.S. Agency for International Development, where he held assignments as agricultural credit advisor and agricultural economist from which he retired in 1979. He held long-term assignments in Afghanistan; Ethiopia, where he was on loan to the World Bank; Vietnam; Guatemala; and Washington, D.C. Mr. Clark returned to the University of Maine as director of International Agricultural programs from 1980 to 1982, after which he became a consultant in agricultural development finance and served in the Sudan, Egypt, Uganda, Pakistan and Mauritius on World Bank and U.S. Agency for International Development assignments. After retirement, he did volunteer assignments with Volunteers in Overseas Cooperative Assistance in Ghana, Poland, Hungary and Russia. He loved the outdoors and was an avid gardener. He was a winter resident of Auburndale, Fla., for several years, but called Orono home and was a member of the Church of Universal Fellowship. He was predeceased by a sister, Roberta; and a brother, Alvin, who died in a naval accident in 1945 at Pearl Harbor. He is survived by his wife, the former Harriet A. Hartwell, whom he married June 19, 1954; one son, William Clark; daughters, Lois Clark and Cynthia Ouellette; son-in-law, James Ouellette; a grandson, Paul C. Ouellette; granddaughters, Kendra J. Palmer and her husband, Sam Palmer and Jennifer L. Norton; and by a brother, Horace W. Clark. Burial will be at the Maine Veterans’ Memorial Cemetery, Augusta. A memorial service will be held 11 a.m. Monday, Nov. 6, at the Church of Universal Fellowship, Orono.
LEWIS E. CLARK
