William Harper Clark

William H. Clark passed away October 11, 2023 at the age of 90 from complications of bladder cancer at Stella Maris.

Bill was a career insurance agent mostly handling commercial construction bonding, but he was remembered more for his years coaching basketball in Baltimore.

Born in Baltimore, he was the son of Harper Clark (Vice President of the First National Bank in Baltimore) and Esther Clark (Homemaker). As a child, he lived in one of the first built townhomes in the Rogers Forge area before moving to Tunbridge Road in Homeland.

Bill graduated from Loyola High School. After high school, he attended Loyola College before enlisting in the U.S. Army. His Army service was cut short after he was seriously injured as a passenger in an auto crash while on a weekend leave from Army training camp. Bill finished up his college at Loyola College when he returned to Baltimore.

Bill married the former Regina "Jean" Abicht in 1954 and together raised five children until Jean's death in 1997.

His main basketball coaching career started in the early 1960's when Bill, Frank Svehla, Jack Scannell and Tony Urlock started the basketball program for St. Mary's Govan's elementary school. Together they established an intramural league for students from kindergarten to 8" grade and two travel teams, a 5th & 6th grade travel team and a 7th & 8th grade travel team. Bill coached the 7th & 8th grade travel team from the 1960's through to the mid 1980's. Over that period, his teams not only won plenty of Catholic League championships, but also many local high school sponsored tournaments. The biggest tournament was the "Sweet 16" at St. Joseph's High School. This tournament featured 64 teams from Baltimore City and surrounding counties competing for the championship prize, which Bill's team won multiple times over his coaching days.

"It was amazing the number of former players and parents that my father would run into from day to day that were so excited to reminisce about those basketball days" according to his son, Rob.

Bill was also a passionate golfer. A long-time member at Baltimore Country Club and former member at the Eagle's Nest Country Club in Phoenix, MD.

Predeceased Bill are his first wife Jean Clark and son, Mark (Beth) Clark. Surviving Bill are his wife, Eileen Reilly-Clark, daughters Jeanne (Tom) Lipin of Jupiter, FL, Patti Clark of Tucson, AZ, sons Robert (Diane) Clark of Annapolis, MD and Michael (Mollie) Clark of Lutherville, MD, in addition to 16 grandchildren and 3 great grandchildren.

Viewings will be 2-4 PM and 6-8 PM on Friday, October 13th at Lemmon Funeral Home of Dulaney Valley, Inc. located at 10 W. Padonia Road (at York Rd.) Timonium, MD 21093.

A mass will be held at Stella Maris off Pot Spring Road, Timonium, MD 20193 at 11:00 AM Saturday, October 14.

Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.lemmonfuneralhome.com for the Clark family.