HEREABOUTS SANDRA BAER
Skating rinks have been part of Barbara Clark’s life for the past 76 years, but recently the Ice Skating Institute of America recognized the former professional skater’s contributions to recreational skating by awarding her the 2010 Erika Amundsen Award.
“It’s fulfilling for me, because I’m taking things I did as a professional and applying them to my skaters,” said Clark, 87, who coaches and choreographs skating routines for the Kettering Ice Kadettes. “It keeps me young.”
Clark was born in Owatonna, Minn., but moved to Grinnell, Iowa, at a young age after her father bought a grocery store, which was renamed, Barclay’s Cash & Carry. At the age of 10, Clark moved to Minneapolis, Minn., where she began figure skating at the age of 11.
“Everybody knew how to skate up there, but not all could figure skate,” said Clark, who was a YWCA Girl Reserve and served as an officer in the Girls Athletic Association and vice-president of her class at Central High School. “I was very active and very athletic.”
While in high school, Clark met her husband, Tom Clark. The couple put their marriage plans on hold after graduating while Clark auditioned and was hired to work as a professional skater with the Shipstads and Johnson Ice Follies. Tom Clark joined the military and served as a pilot ferrying troops and supplies in Europe during World War II.
“After I graduated, I went right to Boston and then spent three and a half years touring all over the U.S. and Canada,” said Clark, who performed a popular swing number with one of the companies owners while on tour to major city, including Seattle, New York City, Los Angeles, Cleveland, Chicago, and St. Louis. “We didn’t go south, or to Florida much, because there wasn’t too much ice there.”
In 1945, Tom Clark returned home and the couple married and moved back to Minnesota.
Clark remained at home caring for the couple’s four children: Todd, a retired teacher and coach who is married, has four children and lives in West Field, Ohio; Stephen, a lobbyist, who lives in Columbus and is married with three children; Marty, who has four children, lives in Centerville with his wife, Leigh Ann, and owns TNT Graphics in Miamisburg; and Douglas, a married fish broker, who has three children and lives in Columbus. All four children graduated from Centerville High School.
“We were living in Brittany Hills when Marty decided we needed a skating rink, so he would go out at night with the hose and spray water outside,” said Clark, whose husband was co-owner of Dayton Outdoor Advertising Co. “I was surprised, but it worked and we had a rink in our yard.”
In the early 1970s, Clark was asked to coach a ladies’ skating group at the Hara Arena. She later coached a team at the Ice House, which was located on Marshall Road and is now being used as a drive-through. She finally ended up coaching the Morning Glories, an ice-precision team from 1987-91 at the Kettering Recreation Center before starting the Kettering Ice Kadettes group at KRC.
Clark currently lives at the St. Leonard’s Senior Living Community in Centerville where she teaches line dancing.
Contact this columnist at (937) 432-9054 or jjbaer@aol.com.
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