Doing research on a piece I’m writing, I ran across Mabel Clark, the former owner of Clark’s Foundry in Mattoon. When I saw the Rev. Bob Clark (no relation) presided at her funeral, I called him, taking a chance he remembered a little something about Mabel. I learned hers was one of 1,500 funerals for the Rev. Clark, and he still had his notes. So I switched gears. The story of 1,500 funerals begs to be told. It resulted in 2 conversations with Rev. Clark, both a couple of hours or so. Those conversations are precious like gold to me. Sitting in this seat to tell stories I get to meet and learn from all sorts of people. Bob Clark is a gem. As an aside, yesterday when I took his picture I learned that some of his funerals were in my hometown of Newton, for children, special needs students, who had worked with his first wife, Sally, and their families turned to Bob Clark. The piece is longer than a blog post, so here is a link. It’s about 1,600 words, so you’ll need a cup of coffee. I hope you enjoy Rev. Clark as much as I do.