Dick Clark (Iowa politician)

Richard Clarence "Dick" Clark (September 14, 1928 – September 20, 2023) was an American politician from Iowa who served as a member of the United States Senate from 1973 to 1979. He was a member of the Democratic Party. After he left the United States Senate, Clark was known for a major role in helping refugees of the Vietnam War.

Early life
Richard Clarence Clark was born on September 14, 1928, in Paris, Iowa to Clarence and Bernice (Anderson) Clark, who owned a grocery store near Lamont, Iowa, where they moved to when Dick was young. He was of English and German descent. Clark attended rural public schools. He graduated from Lamont High School in 1947 and enlisted in the U.S. Army, serving in Europe during the Korean War. Clark was educated at the University of Maryland, Wiesbaden and the University of Frankfurt from 1950 to 1952 during his military service. He completed his BA in 1953 at Upper Iowa University and his Master's in 1956 at the University of Iowa. He then became a professor at Upper Iowa University and a Democratic Party volunteer, working to collect names, addresses, and phone numbers of party members with the goal of contacting them on election day to get them to the polls. This resulted in Democratic victories in an otherwise Republican area.

This caught the attention of attorney John Culver of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, who enlisted Clark to help run his congressional campaign in 1964. After their victory, Clark became Culver's administrative assistant, and the pair modernized the Iowa Democratic Party's grassroots efforts in the state, building up a sophisticated voter turnout organization that progressed from names on index cards to computerized databases.

In 1971, Culver was contemplating running for the U.S. Senate. He dispatched Clark to travel the state to set up infrastructure for a potential campaign. But in early 1972, Culver decided that defeating entrenched incumbent Republican Senator Jack Miller was impossible and bowed out of the race. With the infrastructure set up and no other Democratic candidate in the race, Clark entered it himself.

U.S. Senate
Throughout the campaign, polls showed Clark trailing Miller by lopsided margins. A critical part of Clark's campaign was his 1300 mi walk across the state to gain publicity. He won in an upset, with 662,637 votes (55%) to Miller's 530,525 (44%). American Independent Party candidate William Rocap received 8,954 votes (1%). In 1974, Clark was joined by Culver, his former boss, who rode to victory because of the Republican Party's unpopularity in the wake of the Watergate scandal.

Clark was a very liberal senator, consistently ranked among the most liberal during his tenure. He served on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and chaired the Subcommittee on Africa, developing considerable expertise on the Angolan Civil War. In 1976, he authored the Clark Amendment, which barred aid from the U.S. government to private groups engaged in military or paramilitary operations in Angola.

Clark ran for reelection in 1978 against Republican Roger Jepsen. Because of his efforts against the apartheid government in South Africa, Jepsen taunted him as "the Senator from Africa". The South African government channeled $250,000 into the race. In a nationally poor year for Democrats, Clark lost the seat by a narrow margin. President Jimmy Carter then appointed him to be Ambassador at Large and United States Coordinator for Refugee Affairs in 1979; later that year, Clark resigned from his position to join the presidential campaign of Ted Kennedy, with whom Clark had served in the Senate, against Carter.

As a senator, Clark served on the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry, the Committee on Environment and Public Works, and the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship.

After the Senate
Clark joined the Aspen Institute and in 1983 founded its Congressional Program, which sought to educate members of Congress on foreign affairs issues. Clark also served as U.S. Ambassador-at-large for a refugee crisis related to the Vietnam War.

Personal life and death
Clark was married twice, he first married Jean Shirley Gross in 1954. They had two children, and divorced in 1976. He then married Julie Kennett, who had one son from a previous marriage, in 1977.

Clark died in his sleep at home in Washington, D.C. on September 20, 2023, six days after his 95th birthday.