CECIL RAYMOND CLARK, 85, passed away on January 7, 2008 at St. Joseph's Hospital in Dickinson, ND. Service of Remembrance for Cecil, a lifelong Hettinger, ND businessman will be Friday, January 11, 2008 at 10:30 a.m. at the Hettinger Lutheran Church. Rev. Kathleen Dettmann and Rev. Robert Boxrud will officiate and burial will follow at the Hettinger Cemetery. Visitations will be from 1:00 to 7:00 p.m. Thursday, January 10 at the Evanson Jensen Funeral Home and one hour prior to the funeral at the church on Friday morning.

Cecil was born on July 9, 1922 to Raymond S. Clark and Jennie (Wier) Clark. He was raised in Hettinger and graduated from Hettinger High School in 1940. Cecil attended North Dakota State School of Science in Wahpeton, ND for two years and served in the Signal Corp in Grand Forks for two years before returning to his hometown. Cecil's business career began in 1942 when he joined his dad, Ray, at the Texaco filling station that Ray began operating in 1928. Cecil pumped his first gallon of gas at age of nine. Eventually he was responsible for most of the bookkeeping and gradually worked his way into management. Cecil worked with his Dad until Ray died in 1960.

Cecil married Alice Evelyn Carlson of Bowman, ND on July 4, 1942 in Baker, MT. Cecil and Alice met through high school activities and they both played the fiddle. Some of Cecil's business ventures included a Texaco filling station, built Clark Motors (the Prairie Mercantile building) in the 1950s which housed Pontiac cars, Case machinery and Firestone tires, began KNDC radio station in 1954, established Clark Oil in 1960, built a shop on Highway 12 in 1965 to accommodate Yamaha motorcycles and U-Haul rentals. Cecil purchased the Erlandson Lumber Company in the early 70's, built the MDU (Farmer's Union Insurance) and Carmel Cleaner's building, remodeled the Halvorson Jewelry store into office space and apartments and bought the Red Owl store.

Cecil also found time to serve as fire chief for eight years, city council for just over 10 years, was president of the Jaycees, Senior Center and the PTA, Civil Air Patrol, Civil Defense Director and a member of the Hettinger Masonic Lodge, was the church treasurer, and even served as the Adams County Tax Director for 13 years.

Cecil took up flying in the 1940s and obtained a certificate of airman registration, which was important during the war. Cecil felt his greatest business accomplishment in his business life was the radio station. In order to make the radio station possible, someone on staff had to be a First Class Radio Telephone Operator, so Cecil went to Burbank, CA, for classes and was certified in December 1953.

When KNDC went on air on March 1, 1954, Hettinger became one of the smallest cities in the nation to have a radio station. KNDC also holds the honor of being the first radio station in the area to broadcast wrestling, a sport deemed too difficult to portray to listeners.

Those most grateful for having been a part of his life are his wife, Alice, Dickinson, ND; daughters, Cherry Jensen, Rapid City, SD, Nancy Neumann, Fargo, ND, Carla (David) Low, Glendale, AZ, Carol (Lonnie) Stippich, Hettinger, ND, son, Carl (Teri) Clark, Dickinson, ND; four grandchildren, Nicole (Greg) Gullickson, Kimberly (Theron) Schalesky, Ryan and Nolan Clark and four great grandchildren, Carson and Allyson Schalesky and Emily and Will Gullickson.

Cecil was preceded in death by his parents and one sister and brother-in-law, Lola and Arnold Adsem. In lieu of flowers, a memorial has been established by his family.