By HDN Staff
JOHN CLACK
SURREY, British Columbia John Weaver Clack, 84, died Wednesday, Dec. 27, 2000 in Canada of natural causes.
Clack is being cremated and his ashes will be returned to Havre. There will be no memorial services at his request.
Clack was born May 27, 1916 in Havre to Weaver and Alice (Hall) Clack. He was educated in Havre and sold The Havre Daily News, Great Falls Tribune and Saturday Evening Post as a boy.
Clack attended veterinarian school at Washington State College in Pullman, Wash. and worked summers for Morrison and Knutson Construction Company in summers. He realized he was more interested in heavy equipment than animal health and enrolled in Lincoln Welding School of Ohio and graduated as an expert welder. He continued working for Morrison and Knutson in various parts of the country.
Clack volunteered for the Navy Seabees at the beginning of World War II and helped with construction of many airfields in the South Pacific and Alaska.
After his discharge, Clack was employed in the Export Division of LeTourneau Manufacturing of Shreveport, La. and manufactured earth moving machinery. He was sent to Europe as a training officer to help construction companies learn to care for and use their heavy equipment. LeTourneau later merged with Westinghouse and Clack continued working out of the Paris headquarters for 13 years.
In 1965, Clack and Hildegarde Gorgan, a native of Munich, Germany, were married in Peoria, Ill., the world headquarters for LeTourneau-Westinghouse.
Clack resigned as training officer and moved to Vancouver, British Columbia where he and his wife formed HILMAK Trading Company, an import-export company specializing in automotive equipment.
Clack was preceded in death by his wife, Hildegard, and a brother, Charles.
Survivors include his brothers, H. Louis Clack of Havre and Robert E. Clack of Geneseo, Ill. and Simms, Texas; aunt, Margaret Louise Wigmore of Havre; several cousins, nieces and nephews.
