Hugh Salisbury Clark, born November 14,1925 in his family home at 74 College Street, Amherst, MA, died in Seminole, FL age 95 on May 7, 2021. He was at Suncoast Hospice surrounded by his family after complications from a fall in March. He is reunited with his wife Nancy “Laurie” Lawrence Clark whom he married in June,1968 and who passed away in 2016. He is preceded by his brother, the late Holbrook Tuckerman Clark. Hugh was the second son of Dr. Orton Loring Clark, born in Boston in1887 and botanist at the University of Massachusetts and Margaret Tuckerman Clark, born in Amherst, MA in in 1884. His maternal grandparents were Dr. Frederich Tuckerman and Alice Cooper Tuckerman of Amherst, friends to poet Emily Dickinson.
Hugh graduated from Amherst High School in 1944 and attended AIC, American International College in Springfield, MA where he played football and wore a leather helmet. We always laughed when he told us his coach would say, “put some water on it” to anyone that got an injury! Hugh served in the artillery division of the United States Army in Fulda, Germany in 1956-57. Hugh was a military history buff and read every book and saw every movie on wars. With his knowledge of war history, he knew interesting details could tell you the dates of wars, the Generals’ names and the reasons for the war.
Hugh was employed for over 31 years at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst in the School of Agriculture Dept. He worked at Shade Tree Laboratories and was instrumental in the study of the Dutch elm disease under Dr. Francis Holmes. He retired from UMass in 1986 and became a snowbird with his wife, “Laurie” in Port Charlotte FL, before moving fulltime to Seminole, FL in 2013 to be near his children and granddaughter. Hugh was a lifelong golfer and Honorary member at The Amherst Golf Club. He enjoyed the unique hole-in-one certificate they awarded him for getting a hole- in-one on the 9th hole while hitting from the 8th tee in ‘02. As a resident of Seminole Gardens in Florida, he was at the pool every day, and was nicknamed the Mayor of the Pool At Seminole Gardens. He humbly tagged himself as being in charge of the “welcoming committee”.
He was proud to be from Massachusetts and loved the NE Patriots, and cheered for the Tampa Bay Bucs once Brady joined them. He made many friends and would start a conversation with anyone by asking where they were from, did they serve in the military, or did they play sports? If it was a big guy he’d say, “hey, you want to go five rounds?”.
He went peacefully surrounded by family, stepdaughter Lucy (Smith) Chapman Evoy and her husband Bill, granddaughter Haley Chapman and stepson Larry, and his wife Joy Smith. Special thanks to Hospice. Hugh supported the Amherst Boys club and Grace Church in Amherst. He will be cremated and will have ashes spread and a celebration of life gathering at Amherst Golf Club in the fall, and at a family plot at Wildwood cemetery.
