William Andrews Clark Jr.


William Andrews Clark Jr. was a Los Angeles-based philanthropist and the youngest surviving son of copper baron and U.S. Senator William Andrews Clark Sr. and his first wife, Katherine.

Early life

William Andrews Clark Jr. was born on March 29, 1877, in Deer Lodge, Montana. His father was William A. Clark and his mother was Katherine 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.

Career and hobbies

Clark was a partner in the law firm Clark & Roote in Butte, Montana. He also served on the boards of several of his father's mining and industrial concerns.

Book collection

In the mid-1910s, he began collecting antiquarian and fine press books as a serious hobby. 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.

Philanthropy

He founded the Los Angeles Philharmonic, which debuted in the Trinity Auditorium 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

In 1902, he married Mabel Duffield Foster, who died of sepsis following the birth of their son:
In 1907, he married Alice McManus, a native Nevadan, and they moved their permanent home to Los Angeles in the early 1910s. Their house at Adams Boulevard and Cimarron Street occupied the grounds that the Clark Library still stands on today.

Death

He died on June 14, 1934, at Salmon Lake, Montana. He is entombed in the family mausoleum which he built on the island in Sylvan Lake at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery. Both of his wives and his son are also in the mausoleum.