- Date Of Birth: November 27, 1926
- Date Of Death: February 4, 2018
- State: Colorado
Clark Barefoot was born in 1926 in San Diego, California to Anson and Helen Barefoot. Anson was a multi-talented man who had owned a small diner, a water delivery business, and had worked as a machinist and baker. Clark grew up in a San Diego vastly different from the large, busy city it now is. Mission Valley was then “the country” and a place of truck farms.
Clark grew up during the depression in the same house on Edgemont Street near Balboa Park until he left high school to join the Merchant Marines in 1944. As World War II was nearing its final stages, he served two tours in the Merchant Marines and saw much of the world as a sailor.
After the war Clark completed his high school diploma and developed a love of motorcycles and motorcycle racing. He journeyed to Texas working as a motorcycle mechanic and racing, primarily flat track. He was good enough to compete one year at Daytona Beach road race, placing 15th in the amateur class on a factory-tuned BSA Gold Star.
In 1962 Clark moved his family to Fort Collins, Colorado and opened a motorcycle dealership for what was then a little-known Japanese brand of motorcycles called “Honda”–at a time when Japanese motorcycles were an object of derision among many hard-core motorcyclists. Selling both Honda and Triumph motorcycles through Fort Collins Cycle Center, Clark’s entry into the world of business was successful.
In 1996 Clark and Ruth moved to Las Vegas and then in 2005 moved to Grand Junction Colorado, where both Ross and Darek lived with their families.
A lifelong student of the Bible, Clark remained intellectually active in reading, studying, and writing about Christianity until just a few weeks before he died.
On Sunday morning, February 4th, 2018, Clark died peacefully at home from heart failure at the age of 91.
Clark is survived by Ruth, his wife of 67 years, as well as sons Darek and Ross, 8 grandchildren, and 2 great grandchildren.
