Lynda Kay Clark

Lynda K Clark, age 69 years, peacefully departed this world July 23, 2015 surrounded by her family at The University of Toledo Medical College. Lynda was a Toledo native and 1964 graduate of Thomas A. DeVillbiss High School where she was a member of the honor society and various other scholastic organizations. She was a 1968 graduate of The University of Toledo and member of Tri-Delta sorority. Throughout college, Mrs. Clark worked in retail sales at the former LaSalle’s store at Westgate where she developed a serious love of clothing and fashion. Lynda was an experienced high school educator with over 30 years of teaching experience. Most recently, she taught senior level Honors English, Contemporary Literature, and British Literature at Start High School where she had worked for the past 19 years and won the “Outstanding Teacher” award from the African American Club. Lynda prided herself on imparting “out of the box” critical thinking skills, challenging her students to obtain such “higher order” competencies that would not only prepare them to become successful college students, but future productive members of society. Many of her students loved and admired her for this and she would never hesitate to stop and talk with the myriad of students whom she encountered outside of the classroom. Lynda loved class discussion and would often invite former students she had mentored back into her classroom to discuss their successful college and career journeys. She used this approach as a means of empowering students’ destinies with “what is possible” when one applies hard work and diligence. Many of these young scholars accredited future academic, life, and career successes to her. In addition, Lynda committed much of her personal time after school helping to ensure students succeeded in their educational endeavors. She taught summer school, Dial-A-Teacher, and helped in various tutoring programs. Lynda was dedicated to her profession and often cited her “old school” German work ethic for her success both inside and out of the classroom, where she reinforced traditional American values. Lynda was known as “The Realist” because she would use real life examples and personal experiences integrated with culture, travel, and the arts to demonstrate to her students that there “is a life outside of Toledo.” In years past, she would often take her classes to the yearly Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Stratford Ontario, Canada. Lynda began her teaching career in 1968 in Monroe, WI. where she relocated with her husband, Gerald P. Clark. She took a reprieve to raise her young son, Sean, after returning to Toledo in 1971. Lynda then worked in retail sales at the former Sears Westgate until relocating to Farmington Hills, MI. with her family in 1979 where she worked for Lord & Taylor at Twelve Oaks Mall in Novi, MI. Lynda became widowed in 1980, and it was then that she began using her personal experience to help others cope with traumatic loss. She acquired knowledge in the grieving process and associated coping skills from her mentors, Dr. Jude Cotter and wife Margaret. With this acumen and personal experience, Lynda helped others in the form of grief counseling and support seminars for widows and widowers in the Metro-Detroit area. She substitute taught in various Metro-Detroit schools until returning to Toledo in the mid-1980’s where she continued her teaching career, performing dual roles as a substitute teacher and teaching ESL students in Sylvania, OH. Shortly thereafter, Lynda began a career with Toledo Public Schools that spanned the next 29 years; teaching at Libbey, Scott, and Start High Schools. She had just chosen to retire at the close of the 2015 school year. Lynda loved to travel to the Caribbean islands, northern Michigan, and Maya Riviera, Mexico with her family and longtime companion, Hermann Hartmeyer. She was a devoted and loving grandmother to her two young grandchildren, Justin and Abigail who also accompanied her on many Caribbean adventures. She loved spending time with them playing checkers and board games, going out to lunch or dinner, accompanying them to the zoo and Metro-Detroit area cider mills, or just sitting quietly reading or watching a movie. She cherished them more than anything. She also loved her big “grand-doggies,” Duke, Gunnar, and Hans Clark. Lynda is survived by her loving son and daughter-in-law, Sean P. (Rachael M.) Clark, beautiful grandchildren Justin P. and Abigail C. Clark, mother Catherine R. Mylander, brother Larry D. (Evelyn) Mylander, sister Laura A. (Ronald) Kulwicki, and niece and nephews; Hannah, Ben, Austin, and Josh. She was preceded in death by her husband Gerald (Jerry) P. Clark, father Lynden F. Mylander, mother-in-law Mertal Avery (Clark), father-in-law Charles J. Clark and longtime “traveling companion” Hermann J. Hartmeyer. Visitation will be at Ansberg-West Funeral Home, 3000 W. Sylvania Ave., Toledo, OH 43613 on Tuesday July 28, from 2-8 p.m. Funeral services will be on Wednesday July 29, at 11:00 a.m. Interment will follow at Ottawa Hills Memorial Park. Memorial contributions may be made to The Epilepsy Center of Northwest Ohio or the Toledo Area Humane Society. "I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion." Henry David Thoreau

Lynda Kay Clark

March 15, 1946 - July 23, 2015