William Andrews Clark Jr.

William Andrews Clark, Jr. (March 29, 1877 – June 14, 1934) was a Los Angeles-based philanthropist and the youngest son of copper baron and U.S. Senator William Andrews Clark, Sr. and his wife Katherine.

Spouse(s):

• Mabel Duffield Foster
• Alice McManus (1883 - 1918)

Children:

• William Andrews Clark, III, (1839 - 1925) or (1902 - 1932)*

Parent(s):

• William A. Clark
• Catherine Louise Stauffer

 
 Siblings:
  Mary Clark DeBrabant (1870 - 1939)*
  Charles Walker Clark (1871 - 1933)*
  Infant Clark (1874 - 1874)*
  Katherine Stauffer Clark Morris (1875 - 1974)*
  Jesse Clark (1876 - 1878)*
  William Andrews Clark (1877 - 1934)
  Francis Paul Clark (1880 - 1896)*
  Andree' Clark (1902 - 1919)*
  Huguette Marcelle Clark (1906 - 2011)*

Biography

William Andrews Clark, Jr. was born on March 29, 1877 in Deer Lodge, Montana. His father was William A. Clark and his mother, Catherine Louise Stauffer. He was educated in France and in the New York area and graduated from the University of Virginia with a Bachelor's degree in Law in 1899.

He returned to Butte, Montana, where he worked for several years as a partner in the law firm Clark & Roote and also served on the boards of several of his father's mining and industrial concerns.

In the mid-1910s, he began collecting antiquarian and fine press books as a serious hobby (he had dabbled in book buying previous to this). In 1919, he hired bibliographer Robert E. Cowan to consult on book-buying purchases and to help with the compilation of a printed library catalog. The first volume of this was printed in 1920 by San Francisco printer John Henry Nash.

He founded the Los Angeles Philharmonic in 1919 and bequeathed his library of rare books and manuscripts, the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library, to the University of California, Los Angeles upon his death in 1934. He also helped to fund the construction of the Hollywood Bowl.

Personal life and death

In 1902, he married Mabel Duffield Foster (1880 – January 1, 1903), who died of septicemia following the birth of their son, William Andrews Clark, III ("Tertius") (December 2, 1902 – May 23, 1932). Their son died in a plane crash in Arizona in 1932.

In 1907, he married Alice McManus (1883–1916), a native Nevadan, and they moved their permanent home to Los Angeles in the early 1910s. (Clark County, Nevada is named for his father.) Their house at Adams Boulevard and Cimarron Street occupied the grounds that the Clark Library still stands on today.

He died on June 14, 1934 at Salmon Lake, Montana. He was buried in the family mausoleum at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery alongside his son and two wives.