Individual Details

Death

Formerly of Rock Hill - The Reverend Doctor Walter Anderson Clark, 85, went to be with the Lord on Thursday, February 8, 2007, in Greenville, South Carolina. The funeral will be at First Assembly of God in Rock Hill, South Carolina at 10 AM on Saturday, February 10, 2007. Burial will follow at Forest Hills Cemetery in Rock Hill. Pastor Clark was born on January 24, 1922 in Thayer, Missouri. He was the son of the late V. L. Clark and the late Gesta Denton Clark. Pastor Clark earned a certificate in radio and electronics engineering just before he entered the army in World War II. He served as a radio engineer throughout Europe. Upon his return from the war, he worked for Dixie Radio in Columbia and married a Rock Hill widow, Lucile Dabney Furr. He established a radio repair shop in Rock Hill, but then he felt the call of God on his life and returned to college to prepare for the ministry. Pastor Clark became a licensed Assembly of God minister in 1948 and graduated from Southeastern Bible College of the Assemblies of God in 1950; he received a doctor of divinity degree from Florida Beacon Bible College in 1987. He was ordained by the South Carolina District of the Assemblies of God in 1950 and retired from his last pastorate in October 2002 as the oldest active Assembly of God minister in South Carolina. Over the years he served God in churches in Plant City, Florida; Charleston, South Carolina; and Joanna, South Carolina. His longest tenure was at First Assembly of God in Rock Hill, where he served his beloved congregation for more than forty-two years in two pastorates separated by a term as a missionary to Japan. While in Japan, he set up and managed the Far Eastern Radio Network of the Assemblies of God. After the death of his first wife, he married Beatrice Canfield Gallman, a retired accounting executive with Belk, on June 24, 1995. She had served many years as a pastor's wife and child evangelist. Pastor Clark was the widower of Lucile Dabney Clark. He was also preceded in death by his brother, Joseph E. Clark, and his sister, Catherine Head Clark. Pastor Clark is survived by his wife, Beatrice Canfield Clark, of Greenville, South Carolina; by his son, Ronald D. (Rusty) Clark, and his wife, Vicki Ramsey Clark, of Rock Hill; his daughter, Jill C. Green, and her husband, D. Michael Green, of Rock Hill; his daughter Sandra F. Hannon, and her husband, John T. Hannon, of Rock Hill; a grandson reared in his home, H. Leonard Helms, and his wife, Charlotte J. Helms, of Rock Hill; a beloved stepson, Ronald Gallman, and his wife, Carol Gallman, of Greenville; and a beloved stepdaughter, Geri G. Myers, and her husband, Charles Myers, of Greenville; fifteen grandchildren; and seventeen great-grandchildren. The family will receive friends at the Walter A. Clark Family Life Center of First Assembly of God from six until eight on Friday evening, February 9, 2007 and other times at the home of his daughter and son-in-law, Sandra and Jack Hannon, 1656 Heatherhill Road (Ragin Estates), Rock Hill. The family requests that memorials be made to Eternity Changers Ministries, of which Pastor Clark was a founding board member and of which his son, Rusty Clark, is president. Donations may be sent to Eternity Changers Ministries, Post Office Box 4301, Rock Hill, South Carolina 29732. Greene Funeral Home Northwest Chapel is serving the Clark family.