Clark, Charles Ivanovich

He was one of the sons of the adjunct professor of the Riga Polytechnic John Clark, who taught drawing and drawing ^{[2] [3]} . John grew up and studied in the UK ^[2] and, having moved to Riga, retained English citizenship, which was generally characteristic of representatives of the British diaspora in the Baltic region . Charles's mother was the daughter of the Rector of the University of Dorpat Wilhelmina von Havner (Gaffner) ^[2] . (Marriages between immigrants from Misty Albion and Ostsean ladies were then not uncommon, for example, the mayor of Riga at the beginning of the 20th century, George Armitsted, was married to the representative of the famous Ostseey clan in the Livonia province of Pyhlau).

The younger brother of Charles Bruno Dzhonovich Clark (1879-1930) also became an engineer, studied and taught at the Riga Polytechnic, was the technical director of the Vyksa factories of the Prioksky mountain district ^[4] , the Dynamo plant ^[5] , the Kuibyshev Moscow Electric Lamp Plant ( MELZ ) ^[6] , was elected a member of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee ^[7] .

Charles Clark studied at Fromm School and the City Classical Gymnasium ^[2] , after which he entered the Riga Polytechnic , which he graduated with honors in 1894 ^[8] .

Shortly after graduating, Charles got a job at the Experimental Shipyard, where he managed to establish himself as a talented and promising designer. After working for some time at the shipyard, Clark follows in his father's footsteps and comes to the EPI, where he is given permission to create a new discipline, Shipbuilding, of which he becomes a permanent teacher. In 1898, he begins to teach. In 1902 he received a professorship ^[9] . From 1905 to 1917, Charles Clark served as dean of the Faculty of Mechanics. After Riga mayor Wilhelm Blumerink , who replaced Armitsted after 1912, receives an order to design the Peter the Great icebreaker of the new generation, Charles Clark sets to work on its creation. In fact, Charles Clark is the author of the project on which the icebreaker was built.

Charles Clark fell in love with the daughter of the imperial army colonel A. A. Lysenko. However, it was difficult to formally formalize the relationship with lovers, since a confessional factor interfered in the matter. The Orthodox Church demanded that Clark change his religion to Orthodox. Charles Clark did not go for it, and therefore the wedding procedure was not held in Riga, but in Berlin , where in 1897 a solemn ceremony of marriage of the follower of the Reformed faith Charles Ivanovich Clark and the Orthodox Nadezhda Aleksandrovna Lysenko took place. In Berlin, the newlyweds spent an unforgettable honeymoon. The family had eight children, each of whom, according to a joint decision of the spouses, was baptized in the Riga Reformed Church located on Marstalu Street (built on the recommendation of Peter I from 1717 to 1727).

In connection with the onset of hostilities in 1914-1915, enterprises, higher educational institutions and cultural monuments are evacuated from Riga, as well as from a number of other cities of Livonia, Courland and Estonia . Charles Clark, together with his native Polytechnic, is evacuated to Moscow with his vast family. Shortly after a short period of life in Moscow , Charles Clark's family moved to Odessa , where its head became a teacher at the Odessa Polytechnic Institute in 1918. The family lives in Odessa until 1923 (until August of this year, Charles teaches at the OPI). During this period, Clark continues to engage in design and inventive activities, it should be noted that he is at the origins of two new faculties of OPI - design and civil engineering; Clark personally conducted the recruitment of teachers for new disciplines, oversaw the educational process and strongly advocated for the technical development of the institute ^[10] . At the same time, the new leadership of the University of Independent Latvia of Latvia started a correspondence with Clark in order to call the prospective shipbuilder back to the republic without setting conditions for passing the opt-in procedure , that is, Clark was automatically promised to obtain citizenship of the newly proclaimed country. As a result, after a meeting with his wife, Clark decides to accept persistent invitations and return to his homeland.

In 1923, a scientist immediately upon arrival in Latvia by an emergency decree of the rector of LU was made the head of the shipbuilding department of the LU Faculty of Mechanics. And here Charles Clark got the opportunity to maximize his inventive abilities. Under his direct project management in the late 1920s - early 1930s, ships with different functional orientations were built in Latvia: trawlers "Imant" and "Viesturs"; in fact, the first Latvian submarines "Speedola" and "Ronis"; famous Latvian icebreaker "Krishjanis Valdemars". One can especially say about the latter: it was launched after 1925, when its construction was completed in Great Britain. Its displacement: 1932 gross register tons. Its main mission in Latvia during the interwar period (officially “Krishjanis Valdemars” was the property of the republic) was to ensure the promotion of merchant ships in the winter to the port of Riga. After the Soviet power was proclaimed in Latvia, the icebreaker was nationalized, and after the Great Patriotic War broke out , the ship was sent to carry out various military missions in the Gulf of Finland . The day of August 28, 1941, when Tallinn was seized by the Nazi occupying armed forces, became fatal for “Krishjanis Valdemara”: during the evacuation of sailors from the capital of the ESSR, the icebreaker was sunk by a German shell, only a few passengers were saved.

In addition to the British shipyards, the republic used shipbuilding enterprises in France - most of the ships designed by Clark were built in this country. In France, the name of Charles Clarke was extremely widely known - in 1926, French President Gaston Doumergue decided to award him with the Legion of Honor . In 1928, the Latvian authorities decided to mark his merits for the benefit of the national shipbuilding industry and awarded Clark with the Order of Three Stars . In 1937, Clark left for a well-deserved rest. For the past five years, Clark has continued to teach at LU despite deteriorating conditions (language policy during the dictatorship of Ulmanis , Nazi occupation from July 1, 1941). After the death in Riga in 1942, the inventor, designer, virtuoso teacher, beloved by more than one generation of students, was buried in the Big Cemetery near his ancestors.

Charles Clark's son, buried in Riga at the Pokrovsky cemetery, also went along the technical path.