"Spirit of Jimmy" Lives On with Clark Freightways as his Legacy
By CATHOLINE BUTLER
BURNABY - Clark Freightways is one of the biggest carriers based in British Columbia. Their trucks are easily identified, both on the highways and in the city, since the company logo imprinted on all their vehicles, is a distinctive green shamrock.
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MARCUS CLARK, Jimmy’s son, is now the owner and president of Clark Freightways. He is seen here in his Smart Car which has “Jimmy” written on the back bumper in memory of his dad.
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Marcus Clark is the owner and president of Clark Freightways, with company headquarters in Burnaby. His father James (Jimmy) Clark, who started the company in 1957, passed away in 1997. I recently dropped into Clark Freightways to speak with Marcus about the company and his Irish background.
He said “ever since my dad started Clark Freightways, our stock and trade has always been temperature controlled perishables. That’s what we consider to be our core business, but over the years we’ve expanded to include all kinds of general freight.
“ We haul pretty much anything you would find in a store, whether that be a Costco store, a hardware store, a clothing store, or a grocery or food store. We do everything within B.C. The majority of our business is from Vancouver to all points in the interior, the north and west of Prince George.
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.MARCUS CLARK holds a photo of dad Jimmy who founded Clark Freightways.
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“But, we also do a lot of traffic through our extensive network of inter-city terminals. So we can take freight from anywhere in the province to anywhere else in the province without having to go through Vancouver first. Actually, Clark Freightways can move anything that you would need to move in a van trailer; everything from meat, to building supplies, to paint.”
Starting in the company when he was 14 years old, Marcus said, “Dad sent me down to Clark Freightways to do something productive with my time. He was mad at me because I wasn’t doing my homework and my report card showed it.
“I started in the warehouse and stayed there for quite a few years. I had a stint driving a truck, worked in dispatch, and I worked in our Kelowna terminal as manager for a number of years in the mid-Eighties.
“I came back down to Burnaby in 1993, and that’s when I first joined the management team and took on the operations manager position. I came up through the ranks, partially due to necessity when my father became ill with cancer in 1996.
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THE DISTINCTIVE green shamrock logo can be seen on highways throughtout British Columbia on all Clark Freightways transport trucks.
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“He was unable to come into the office, so I spent a lot of time on the phone with him regarding company business, and he passed away in 1997. So, everything was trial by fire from then on.”
It’s obvious that Marcus has a lot of pride and affection for both his mother and father and the work that they both did to build Clark Freightways up to the thriving business it is today. Recently married, Marcus proudly wears his dad’s Claddagh ring, which is also his wedding ring.
Speaking about his father’s background and how he got into the freight business, Marcus said, “My dad was born in Vancouver. He came from a large family of three boys and four girls. Dad was always very close to his mother, Anne Connolly, who had emigrated to Canada from County Donegal in Ireland. Dad always called her ‘gentle Annie’.”
Annie raised the seven Clark kids pretty much single handedly in the depression years down in old East Vancouver at Third and Main Street.
“My grandfather was a policeman in Vancouver,” continued Marcus, “so he wasn’t around a lot and he died when the kids were fairly young. My grandmother was pretty much left alone to raise the family and dad never forgot that.
“It was in deference to her heritage, which he took to be his own as he grew older, that he decided to have the company dedicated to her, the shamrocks and everything. My dad visited Ireland several times, and he was always very proud of his Irish heritage, which we carry on to this day. Green is our favourite colour around Clark Freightways.
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JIMMY CLARK working on one of his early transport trucks for Clark Freightways.
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“My dad worked for several companies before he decided to strike out on his own. He’d always been a fiercely independent fellow, so he bought a five-tonne truck and secured a contract with a grocery carrier. For a long time it was just him, hauling meat up the canyon to the Okanagan and returning with produce.
“In 1960, my mom, Marguerite (who was dad’s second wife), my uncle Pat, who was a fireman, and some of his firemen friends joined the company. It was really a family business at that time and the company expanded from the original terminal at First and Boundary to the present office and terminal on Norland Avenue in Burnaby.
“With no real formal training, my mom became the controller. She ran the office, the payroll, accounts payable, accounts receivable, I mean all of it. I still have her scribblers, notebooks and cheques, because at that time things were tough and we had to hold onto every penny we could.
“But my mom and dad ran the company and built it up and got it off the ground. However, they later split up in the mid-Seventies.”
The Clark family were all accomplished musicians and singers. Jimmy Clark played the guitar and sang, his brother Pete played the piano, trombone, banjo and trumpet, while the Clark sisters played piano and sang.
Jimmy and his brothers formed a band called The Clark Brothers and they used to sing at the old Abbey Tavern on Kingsway. It was after one of Jimmy Clark’s visits to Ireland, that he decided that he wanted to ignite his vision of Irish culture in Vancouver.
“I was quite young at the time,” Marcus recalls, “but I remember my father got a lease on an old building in Gastown, called the ‘Olde Likker Store’. My dad told me that he remembered going to the store with his dad to pick up a bottle.
“My dad completely gutted the place and reconstructed it, together with my mom and Rudy Viktoria, who was a contractor. Anyway, they built the place, decorated it with Irish decor, and called it The Blarney Stone.
“It was the first authentic Irish pub in Vancouver, and it was a smashing success from day one. The Clark Brothers also sang and entertained at The Blarney Stone. Gastown was a real hotspot and the whole Irish thing was doing really well at the time. Ray Carton ran the Harp and Heather, and there was also another pub called Paddy’s.
“My dad wanted to get a St. Patrick’s Day parade going and he got some people together and they had a great parade for about two or three years. It was a big event in Gastown. Clark Freightways had some of their big trucks in the parade and my dad also had his old antique truck in the parade as well.
“I can remember that you couldn’t serve alcohol on Sunday, and the pub was closed with the steel gates locked at the front door. But after the parade, all the family went back to The Blarney Stone and half the people in the parade were coming in the back door. Even the police were coming in to have a little Irish in their coffee!”
Jimmy Clark would be proud of his son Marcus today, to see how successful and well-known that Clark Freightways have become. They’re still flying the shamrock and continuing the tradition he started.
Marcus is following in his father’s footsteps and last March in the St. Patrick’s Day parade in downtown Vancouver, Clark Freightways was front and centre with their shamrock covered truck, while Marcus and his wife rode in their little shamrock covered Smart Car.
Written on the back bumper are the words “Jimmy.” Marcus said he originally wanted to have “Spirit of Jimmy” in memory of his dad inscribed on the bumper, but the car was getting too crowded with lettering and shamrocks.
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For more information about Clark Freightways, call (604) 299-7526, e-mail: info@clarkfreightways.com, or visit their website at: www.clarkfreightways.com.
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