Yuma doctor dies in car crash near Dateland
Clarence Clark described as an ‘earth angel’
Dr. Clarence Clark, a longtime local physician who was once chief of staff at Yuma Regional Medical Center, died Thursday afternoon after his vehicle rolled over and landed in the median of Interstate 8 east of Dateland.
Clark, 60, was driving eastward in his Mercedes SUV when it began to drift across the other eastbound lane, losing control when he reached the edge and rolled over into the median at about milepost 80 near the Maricopa County line, said Bart Graves, public information officer for the Arizona Department of Public Safety.
He was pronounced dead at the scene, and as of Monday the cause of the single-vehicle crash is still under investigation, he said.
His wife Nikki Clark said Monday, “His attributes were his compassion for people, and his wanting to take care of them and heal them. He was a natural healer. He wanted to be a doctor at age 2. He already knew his calling; it wasn’t a job for him, it was his life’s call.”
Born in Detroit, he got an undergraduate degree at the University of Michigan before going to medical school at Wayne State University. The Clarks moved to Yuma in 1990 to start the practice, and never looked back.
“He just loved it. He never wanted to move, never even considered it. He just loved his patients. He was just never going to leave here, he wanted to stick with his patients,” Nikki Clark said.
Dr. Clark maintained two medical practices here: Yuma Heart and Medical Institute and Yuma Infusion Center. He also worked with Dr. John Carson at the PrimeCare Urgent Care Clinics and was physician and liaison for the LifeCare nursing homes.
Office manager Molly Payne, who had worked for Clark for 27 years, said his patients most appreciated that “he took his time and talked to them. You don’t get that. He was always running late, but if you were in that room with him, he took an hour, hour and a half with you if it needed to be. He never cut your time in 15-minute increments, or 30-minute increments.”
Health issues forced him to scale back his practices in recent years, which in turn led to financial struggles, but he always put in as many hours as he could, his wife said.
“He was such a loving, kind, compassionate, God-loving, open-hearted — his last words to everyone were ‘God bless you.’ He was just an earth angel,” Nikki Clark said.
Services in his honor will be held 1 p.m. Saturday at Church For the City, 3726 E. County 13th St., in Yuma. Funeral arrangements are being handled by Yuma Mortuary.
Along with his wife, survivors include their three daughters and one grandson.
A Gofundme account has been set up for the Clark family, at https://www.gofundme.com/x3vdv-dr-clarence-clark-family-tragedy. It had raised nearly $8,700 in two days as of Monday evening, including several large donations from others in the medical community.