Person

Clark, Don E. (Donald Edward), 1933-

Donald Edward Clark was born in Silverton, Oregon, in 1933. His family moved to Oregon less than a year later, and then to San Miguel, California, in 1944. The family returned to Portland in 1945. In 1952, he and Barbara Bolin were married; they later had two children. Clark attended Vanport College, which later became Portland State University, and in 1953, he transferred to San Francisco State College, where he graduated in 1956 with a bachelor's degree in sociology. While at San Francisco State, he worked as a prison guard at San Quentin State Prison. In 1956, he returned to Oregon and worked as a deputy in the Multnomah County Sheriff's office. For six months in 1958, he acted as a jail counselor at Rocky Butte Jail. Around the same time, he earned a teaching credential from Portland State University, then taught elementary school while also serving as a deputy sheriff. He was elected Multnomah County sheriff as a Democrat in 1963 and served until 1966. From 1967 to 1968, he was assistant director of the Law Enforcement Program at Portland State University. In 1968, he was elected to position 4 on the Multnomah County Board of Commissioners. In 1970, he and Barbara Clark divorced, and Don Clark remarried in 1971. In 1974, Clark was elected chair of the Multnomah County Board of Commissioners, and he served in that role until 1979, when charter amendments changing the structure of county government took effect, and he became Multnomah County executive. After an unsuccessful run for the Democratic nomination for Oregon governor in 1982, he retired from county government. He was a consultant with Cogan, Sharpe, & Cogan (now known as Cogan & Associates) for one year. In 1984, he became executive director of the Burnside Consortium, now known as Central City Concern. In 1988, he became executive director of the Housing Authority of Portland. He retired in 1992.

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