Clark Spencer November 15, 1940 - June 15, 2025

Clark Orien Spencer passed away on Sunday, June 15, 2025, at Mountain View Hospital in Payson from complications that could only come from living such an eventful life. He often joked, “If I’d known I was going to live this long, I would’ve taken better care of myself.”

 Clark was born on November 15, 1940, in Payson, Utah. He was the fifth of seven children born to Orien Andrew and Viola Ida Madsen Spencer. To keep their kids out of trouble (or so the story goes), Orien and Viola got the family into horse racing. Small, athletic, and full of grit, Clark naturally became the family jockey. From the age of 15 until he retired from riding in 1992, he was a fixture at the top of the Southern Utah Horse Racing Association leaderboards, racking up an estimated 3,000+ wins. After retiring from the saddle, he transitioned to training racehorses full-time in New Mexico and Wyoming.

In addition to his life at the track, Clark worked for over 20 years as a welder, with stints at Mountain States Steel, Clark Engineering, and Geneva Steel. He was a master of the craft—legend has it he could “weld two wet farts together without losing a single bubble.”

Clark was drafted into the U.S. Army during the Vietnam conflict, served his two years and was honorably discharged before his troop was sent to southeast Asia.  Military honors will be given.

In 1963, Clark married his high school sweetheart, Kathleen Hill. Together they had three children: Sallie (Guyle) Deuel of Santaquin, Aimee (Kirk) Gamble of Payson, and Craig (Alison) Spencer of Queen Creek, Arizona. They also had 11 grandkids and 14 great-grandkids.  Though Clark and Kathleen eventually went their separate ways, they remained united through their children.

Clark then spent the next 37 years with the love of his life, Kathie Christensen Jermain. The two shared a deep bond, both in sobriety and training racehorses side by side until Kathie’s passing in 2020.  Between Kathie’s passing and the pandemic bringing horse racing to a halt, Clark returned to Payson, where he lived out his final years with Aimee—visiting family and friends and talking the ear off of anyone who’d listen. He couldn’t hear much of what was said back to him, even with the aid of his hearing aids, but he mostly heard only what he wanted to hear anyway.

A true connector of people, Clark loved to dig through his archives to find a win photo linking him to someone you knew or were related to—and he’d make sure you got a copy.

Before he moved to New Mexico, Clark spent much of the Fall hunting — both big game, mostly deer (with an occasional elk for good measure); and also pheasants.  He knew every inch of Spencer Fork like the back of his hand and somehow expected everyone else — especially his son and sons-in-law — to magically know the same trails and landmarks through osmosis. Both Craig and Guyle recall being sent to push through thick brush for deer, more worried about getting lost or messing up the plan than about the deer itself.  The pheasant hunts with Dad were a whole different adventure. He never met a field, ditch bank, or promising fence line he didn’t want to hunt, sometimes in locations that made the rest of us nervous.

He quit drinking in 1984 and remained active in Alcoholics Anonymous for the rest of his life. In recent years, he could often be found at the Payson or Santaquin Senior Center, playing pool nearly every day. In his final weeks he could be found at the VA Rehabilitation Center in Payson enjoying many afternoons playing cards with his new friends there.

Clark was a character, a cowboy, and a friend to many — one of a kind in the best way.

He is survived by his 3 children and their families, Kathie’s 3 boys and their families, his brothers Mike (Joan) and Stephen (Joan); and many nieces, nephews, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.  He was preceded in death by Kathie as well as his parents, his brother Blake, and his sisters Carma Swain, Lorraine Healey, and Marjorie Larson.

Special thanks to the staff and friends at Bennion’s VA Rehab Center and the caring staff at Utah Valley Regional Medical Center and Mountain View Hospital.

There will be a Celebration of Life for Clark from 2:00 p.m.-4:00 p.m. on Sunday, June 22^nd, 2025, at the Payson Memorial Park in the pavilion near the pond in the Northwest corner of the park. Please join us for a story, laugh, a memory and one of dad’s favorite treats. There will be a brief informal program at 3:00 p.m., but feel free to come and go as you please.