John L. and Lucille (Corbin) Clark: A Second Son

GARY WAYNE CLARK

Gary was born to John L. "Tim" and Lucille (Corbin) Clark on January 26, 1947 Christ's Hospital (now Stormont Vail Hospital) in Topeka, Kansas.  He weighed 8 pounds and 6 ounces.  Tim and Lucille were living near Silver Lake, Kansas. Gary was in the first class to go to school in new grade one-story brick Maple Hill Grade School as a first grader in 1953. He graduated from Maple Hill High School in 1965.

This is a photograph of Gary W. Clark taken in 1949 as he was about to receive the merchant's treat from Santa Claus at the Maple Hill Town Christmas Party in the American Legion Hall.   The little girl in the dress with the sailor's collar is Trudi Mee, daughter of Lyndon and Marie (Beach) Mee.

Gary started to work for the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe  Railroad in August 1965 in the audit office in Topeka, Kansas. He got drafted into US Army in March 1966. He went to basic training in Ft. Leonardwood, Missouri and then attended Advanced Individual Training at Ft. Polk, Louisiana. He went through eight weeks of infantry training, but then, due to an injury, was transferred to clerk training. He Left Louisiana in October of 1966 and was stationed with the 1st Battalion of the 33 rd Artillery in the Personnel office in Ansbach, Germany. He attained the rank of Specialist 5 prior to discharge in March of 1968.

This is a photograph of Nicholas Leander and Gary Wayne Clark taken in 1948.  Mother had taken us to Topeka where we'd gotten shoes at Montgomery Ward.   The had the photo machine there.

In 1968, Gary returned to work at the Santa Fe audit office. He transferred from the audit office to car service accounting so he could work nights while attending Washburn University in Topeka during the day. Gary completed one year at Washburn and then transferred to Emporia State Teachers College in the fall of 1970. He worked at Iowa Beef Packers in the slaughterhouse in Emporia, Kansas for the summer of 1971. He left there and got a part time job with Fleming Foods in Topeka as a billing clerk in the warehouse at night. He worked there until graduating with a BS degree in Business Administration in May of 1973.

From there he drove a truck on a harvest crew with friends until the Fall and then went to work for Woolco Department Stores in the Credit department as Assistant Credit manager. He Worked there until the Fall of 1974 when he went to work for Kansas Department of Health and Environment as an Accountant in the Business Office. In August of 1975 he accepted a position with the Kansas Bureau of Investigation as their Accountant/Business Manager.

Gary married Teresa O'dell in March of 1976. They were divorced in 1985. They had no children.

Poor Gary Wayne had to suffer with having his photograph taken with me time after time---sorry Gary.   This photograph of Gary W. on the left and Nicholas "Nickey Lee" on the right was taken about 1949 or 1950 in front of the Maple Hill Central Office, Maple Hill, Kansas.

Gary continued with the accountant job at KBI until December 1981 when he took a job as a trainee in the KBI Forensic Crime Laboratory as a Forensic Document Examiner. This involved a two year training program which included working with an experienced Forensic Scientist in his area of study and he also attended a number of training sessions with the Federal Bureau of Investigation Training Academy as well as The United States Secret Service Training Division. After completion of training, he completed the certification testing conducted by the American Board of Forensic Document Examiners. This was approximately a six month process and included written tests, completion of practical problems and demonstration of your findings to a panel of board directors. By passing this testing, Gary became a Certified Forensic Document Examiner, one of only about 100 individuals in United States and Canada who had successfully completed this process. In order to maintain this certification it was necessary to attend week long training seminars with professional and scientific organizations each year to learn new techniques and methods and share information with other Forensic Scientists from other Laboratories. Gary is a member emeritus of the Midwest Association of Forensic Scientists and the International Association for Identification.

This picture was taken on Thanksgiving Day, 2004 at the home of Gary W. Clark in north Maple Hill, Kansas.  First row L-R:  Josh Clark, Katy Clark, Brenda Clark, Lucille Clark, and Karen Clark.   Back Row, L-R:  Steven Clark, Stanley Clark, Gary W. Clark, Timothy John Clark and Nicholas L. Clark, Sr.

A Forensic Document Examiner's work includes the comparison of questioned and known handwriting and hand printing for the purpose of identification of the author or the detection of forgery of all types of documents. Besides handwriting comparison, they also performed paper and ink comparisons, comparison of mechanical impressions on documents such as those made by typewriting devices, adding machines, photocopy machines, rubber stamps, computer printers, printing presses etc., for the purpose of identifying the source of documents or proving that documents were not made on purported devices. They also examine counterfeit currency, checks, and money orders, etc.

Uncle Gary W. Clark used to take his nephew Nicholas Clark, II fishing.   This picture was taken in about 1976 after they had been on a fishing excursion.

Examinations also included detection of indented impressions on documents that could not be seen, in most cases, with the naked eye. When you write on a pad of paper and then tear off the top sheet, often indented impressions are left on the next sheet of paper below the surface where the original writing was made. If the pad is found at a suspects residence, in their possession, or in their vehicle, etc.. These types of impressions are often very important in connecting a suspect to a crime such as threatening letters, drug transaction notes, bank robbery notes, etc. The impressions must be developed using the Electrostatic Detection Apparatus or by using specialized lighting and photographic techniques.

Mylar film ribbons and cartridges from suspect typewriters were often submitted for detection of words and letters on their surface that were also found on documents in question. This was done by using transmitted light to detect the characters and then photographing the characters on the ribbon. Then a side by side comparison of the characters found on the ribbon and the text of the document could be made. This was often useful in connecting individuals to counterfeit documents or in some cases threatening letters sent to individuals.

This photograph was taken in front of the Old Dutch Mill in Wamego, Kansas on our mother's 88th birthday, April 22, 2010.  Lucille (Corbin) Clark is on the left and Gary Wayne Clark is on the right.

The most important part of a Forensic Document Examiners work, besides reporting results of examinations to contributors to aid them in their investigations, is of course to appear in Criminal Courts as an expert witness, to demonstrate and explain his or her findings to a Jury and assist them in determining the guilt or innocence of suspects charged with crimes.

Gary retired from the KBI Laboratory in 2003 after enjoying many years of an interesting and rewarding career. He is now enjoying his leisure time fishing, hunting, golfing and the rest of his time he just wastes doing whatever he wants to. Life is good.

Nick's Additional Thoughts.

Thanks for writing the above information Gary, but as your older brother, I'll take the prerogative to add a couple of things. 

When Gary was in his early teens, he was playing softball and slid into the base and dislocated his hip bone from the socket.  He had a lot of pain and so our Mom took him to Dr. Orval Smith at St. Marys, who said it was a pulled muscle.  So Gary tried to continue to play basketball until he no longer could. That is when the folks took him to Kansas Crippled Children and they sent me to an Orthopedic clinic, operated by Drs. Trees, Joyce and Kroll. Dr. Joyce had me walk for him and knew right away what was wrong.   Surgery was needed.  During the operation, they had to cut a wedge out of Gary's hip bone in order to straighten it as it had bent quite a bit from walking and running on it. They pinned the bone together after removing the wedge. Then they pinned the hip back into the socket.  Gary's right leg wound up about an inch shorter than the left but they told him he could do anything he was able to do. They later operated on him again to remove all pins after the bone and socket had healed.  .

 

This photograph was taken sometime in the 1990s at our mother's home in Maple Hill, Kansas.  L-R are Gary W. Clark, Steven Clark, Lucille (Corbin) Clark, Stanley Clark and Nicholas L. Clark.

Gary was in the hospital for several months and then came home.    I'll never forget the day he was brought home because of what happened.    He was in a body cast, plaster from under his arms all the way down to his knees.   I've forgotten how much that cast weighed but it was many, many pounds.  He was carried into the house and put onto the bed, and I don't think two hours had gone by until the tornado siren went off.   We couldn't see a tornado but the radio was telling us that there was a tornado and that it was headed for Maple Hill.  We all began to think of what we should do.    We didn't have a basement in our house but we could have carried him back outside and across the road to our neighbor's house.  The people had left that had delivered Gary and there was just Mom, myself and I believe Grandmother Corbin and Aunt Bonnie Mitchell.   There was no way we could carry him out of the house and across the street.

Our mother, Lucille (Corbin) Clark, stayed calm.   She said, "We're all going to stay right here and pray for that tornado to miss us."    I don't remember the prayers, if they were audible or silent, but that's just what we did----and the tornado never materialized.   Our mother had the strongest faith of anyone I've ever known.   She was always optimistic and saw the good side of everything.   God bless her!

I was given a 4-F classification when I went for my draft physical, because I had and still have high blood pressure.   We all through because of Gary's hip replacement he would not be taken into the military service.   They saw all of his medical records and still took him into the service.   The rigorous training he received at Ft. Leonardwood and later at Fort Polk was too much for his leg and he eventually had to undergo surgery for varicose veins.  He  had to walk on crutches for a couple of weeks after surgery and wrapped it for a month with bandages.    Rather than give him an honorable discharge, the U.S. Army sent him to Germany where he had lighter duty.   If there was one blessing, it was that he didn't have to go to Viet Nam, which is where he was headed from Ft. Polk. 

Lastly, I want to mention that Gary lived with our mother, Lucille (Corbin) Clark for the last five plus years of her life.  It was such a blessing for them both, but speaking for myself, I want to thank Gary for all the love and attention and kindness he showed Mother over that time.   She could not have stayed in her home from age 85 to age 90 without her help.   It was always her wish that she not be put into a nursing home and Gary made that wish come true.   I know that there were benefits both ways but our family will always be grateful to him for the gift of those years added to Mother's freedom and life.

Gary continues to live in Maple Hill, Kansas and as he says, "Life is good!"

Happy Trails!