Fred George Clark was born in Cleveland, Ohio on November 2, 1890. His parents had immigrated to Ohio from Canada in 1882, and Clark''s father, Frederick G. Clark, had established an oil refining and marketing company in Cleveland. By the age of 13, both of Clark''s parents had died. He attended school in Asheville, North Carolina before returning to Cleveland and completing his schooling at the University School in 1909. From there, he enrolled at Kenyon College. Although he was active in the student life at that campus, he left without graduating in 1913. That same year, Clark went to work as an oil tester for his late father''s firm, the Fred G. Clark Company. Clark rose quickly within the company, becoming office manager in 1914, salesman in 1916, and vice-president in 1920. He also served in the Army during World War I, commissioned as a captain and assigned to purchase lubricating oil for the Army. In 1924 he became president of the Fred G. Clark Company, and two years later became president of an additional company, the Conewango Refining Company in Pennsylvania. Clark continued working in the oil industry until 1932, when he established the insurance firm of Clark, Curtin and Norton in New York. Clark initially served as president of this company, and remained associated with it until 1965. During these same years, Clark developed an interest in Prohibition, and he established an organization known as The Crusaders, which was dedicated to repealing the 18th Amendment and legalizing the production and sale of alcoholic beverages. He was the national commander of The Crusaders, with headquarters in Cleveland. After the repeal of prohibition in 1933, The Crusaders remained active in politics, attacking various New Deal policies throughout the 1930s. In order to spread their views more widely, Clark created a radio program, The Voice of the Crusaders, which was broadcast until 1937. In 1939, Clark established a new organization with which he would remain affiliated for the remainder of his life. During the campaign to end prohibition, Clark became convinced that many Americans suffered from ¿economic illiteracy,¿ and that some program needed to be created which could ¿simplify economics for the masses.¿ To this end he founded the American Economic Foundation, of which he was general chairman, a post that he held until a month before his death in 1973. A staunch advocate of the free market and ¿uncontrolled economy,¿ Clark believed that many conflicts between labor and management were the result of economic misunderstandings and ¿semantic squabbles.¿ One of his group''s earliest activities was a ¿unity¿ campaign among labor representatives in northeast Ohio, in which he sought to emphasize the shared interests of labor and management in fostering industrial production. To reach a wider audience, Clark and his associates turned to the print and broadcast media. Clark moderated a radio program on the NBC Blue Network, Wake Up, America!, which ran from 1940-1946. The format consisted of a panel of experts who debated various economic and political issues of the day, and was usually comprised of academics, journalists, politicians, and business leaders. Included among the guests were such names as Max Lerner, Ruth Alexander, George Sokolsky, Arthur Garfield Hays, Henry Hazlitt, Norman Thomas, Senator Robert A. Taft, and former President Herbert Hoover. Hoover in particular, who shared Clark''s economic views, developed a close friendship with Clark, and invited him to be a frequent guest at the annual ¿encampments¿ of the Bohemian Club in Northern California (held at a location known as ¿Bohemian Grove¿). Yet even those panelists who disagreed with Clark''s views often respected his program and his organization. Socialist Norman Thomas stated years later that although he was ¿in ideological disagreement with a great many things that the Foundation says,¿ he thought that it was ¿doing an educational work from its own point of view and an educational work of value.¿ In addition to his radio work, Clark also collaborated on several books with Richard Stanton Rimanoczy, the educational director of the foundation. These titles included How We Live (1944), Money (1947), and How to Be Popular, Though Conservative (1948). Clark also wrote editorial columns and articles for many magazines and newspapers, and the Foundation also produced and distributed motion pictures as well as sponsored a ¿Hall of Enterprise¿ at the World''s Fair in New York in 1964-1965. In addition to his activities as chairman of the Foundation, Clark also pursued photography as a hobby, practicing his craft frequently at the annual Bohemian Club meetings. Herbert Hoover referred to Clark as ¿not only my good friend but my best photographer.¿ Fred Clark died at his home in New York City on January 7, 1973.
From the description of Clark, Fred G. (Fred George), 1890-1973 (U.S. National Archives and Records Administration). naId: 10677884
