Anaheim Approves Funds for Oral History of Ralph Clark

Orange County Supervisor Ralph B. Clark, a former Anaheim mayor, will join the likes of Charles A. Pearson, an Anaheim mayor for 19 years, and other local personalities whose memories have been recorded to preserve the city’s history.

Without discussion, the Anaheim City Council approved Tuesday a request by library director William J. Griffith to spend $2,832 to record the reminiscences of Clark, 79, who is retiring after 16 years as a county supervisor.

The library plans to contract with the Oral History Program at Cal State Fullerton, which will tape an interview with Clark and then transcribe it into a book, said Elizabeth J. Schultz, a trustee of the Anaheim Public Library.

The recording of Clark’s remembrances is the first to be commissioned in a decade, Schultz said.

In 1976, the city’s Bicentennial committee purchased about 15 such transcripts from the Cal State Fullerton history program as a gift to the library.

Schultz said the transcripts include Howard Loudon, whose family founded the Anaheim Bulletin in 1923, and Kate Rea, founder of the Anaheim Red Cross chapter and whose first name was combined with that of her sister, Ella, to form the name of Katella Avenue.

The library also has about 300 unedited tapes with longtime residents--interviews that were conducted by students at Anaheim’s Loara High School.

Schultz said there are other people the city would like to record, but none beside Clark have been planned for now.

Clark said last weekend that he was flattered by the proposal. Council members have said that the man known to many as the “silver-haired, silver-tongued orator” has contributed much to both Anaheim and Orange County and that his reminiscences should prove a valuable resource.

Clark is credited with helping to bring the Los Angeles Rams football team to Anaheim, and he has been dubbed Orange County’s “Mr. Transportation” for his 15 years of uninterrupted service on the board of the county Transit District.