[3] Clark's father, Joshua, had worked his way west through Utah as a trapper and freighter and felt drawn to the LDS Church after attending his first Sunday service, being baptized a month afterward.

Shortly after moving there from Salt Lake City, Clark's father married Mary Louisa Woolley, who was born on the plains as her parents made their way west with the Mormon pioneers.

[4] The small library in the Clark home was made up of history books, classics, an encyclopedia, the Bible, plus other religious works of the LDS Church.

Although the younger Clark's education was spotty in his youth because of the demands of farm life and meager family resources, he was able to take music lessons and to play with various bands.

[5][better source needed] Clark's father became the clerk, then superintendent, of the Grantsville educational co-operative, was elected the Tooele County Superintendent of Schools in 1878,[6] became president of the Tooele County Education Association, and by 1879 was assessor and tax collector, with his two eldest sons helped with the accounting and record-keeping.

When Talmage was released as principal and called to create a new college for the LDS Church, he brought Clark with him as his chemistry lab assistant and clerk.

The next year, Clark signed on as a teacher at Latter-day Saints' University, but he resigned in February to teach at Salt Lake Business College.

[19] The following year, Clark was an instructor in Commercial Law, Principal of the Shorthand Department, and Secretary of the Faculty at Salt Lake Business College.

For example, when the Mexican Revolution erupted in 1911, he was called upon to make crucial decisions and recommend courses of action to the secretary of state and Howard Taft.

Of particular concern to Clark was the plight of the Latter-day Saints who lived in the Mexican colonies and were often caught in the middle of the conflict and whose presence in Mexico was resented by the revolutionaries.

[28] The Commission, established by treaty [29] in 1924 to settle monetary disputes between the two countries, was thought to be the best means of avoiding war with Mexico.

Herbert Hoover appointed Clark as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States to Mexico on October 3, 1930.

Grant held the position in the First Presidency vacant for over a year until Clark was able to resign from his ambassadorship and resolve necessary government matters.

A week after joining the First Presidency, Clark was asked to fill a position on the board of directors of the Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States, headquartered in New York.

Following the church's October 1933 general conference, Roosevelt again asked Clark to serve on the Foreign Bondholders' Protective Council.

As the Great Depression ravaged the world's economies, a billion dollars in US citizen-owned foreign bonds had fallen into default.

In 1940, Clark initiated a project to transmit sessions of general conference to additional assembly halls via closed circuit radio.

Soon afterward, McKay fell seriously ill, and by necessity, Clark took the reins of LDS Church administration, but he always kept the other members of the First Presidency apprised and consulted with them prior to making any major decision.

In 1954, Our Lord of the Gospels, a deep study of the life of Jesus Christ, was brought to publication, with Thomas S. Monson serving as the representative of Deseret Book in the publishing project.

[42] Clark died on October 6, 1961, at his residence, 80 D Street, Salt Lake City, Utah, at ninety years of age.

As noted in D. Michael Quinn's 2002 biography, Clark's life spanned a period that saw "enormous changes in the attitudes and conduct of Western society, the United States, and the LDS Church toward the races and ethnic peoples of the world.

"[44] As a young man, writes Quinn, Clark possessed "the full endowment of racism characteristic of late nineteenth-century America.

"[45] Clark's nativist views were evident in his 1898 valedictory speech at the University of Utah in which he declared, "America must cease to be the cess-pool into which shall drain the foul sewage of Europe.

[48] Although his son-in-law, Mervyn S. Bennion, was killed during the attack on Pearl Harbor, Clark "neither felt nor manifested any bitterness toward the Japanese," according to Quinn.

"[50] During Clark's lifetime, Utah had de facto segregation policies, and males of African descent were excluded from the LDS priesthood.

As a church leader, Clark resisted the social integration of whites and blacks and strongly opposed interracial marriage, explaining in a 1949 letter: "Since they are not entitled to the Priesthood, the Church discourages social intercourse with the negro race, because such intercourse leads to marriage, and the offspring possess negro blood and is therefore subject to the inhibition set out in our Scripture.

"[51] Clark nevertheless expressed support for Brown v. Board of Education, stating that "the Latter-day Saints willingly accord to [blacks] in civil matters all the rights, privileges, liberties, and protection guaranteed them... in all their social, economic, and political activities.

"[53] According to Quinn, Clark kept several copies of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion in his personal library and shared it and other anti-Semitic publications with colleagues and acquaintances.

[54] He expressed anti-Semitic attitudes in "code words publicly and in specifics privately" and used his church position to obstruct what he perceived as "Jewish influence.

"[55] After Nazi Germany's annexation of Austria, Clark denied desperate pleas by Austrian Mormon converts from Judaism who sought the church's help in emigrating to safety.