Tribute to Grandpa

Written by Seth Topham to his family on their family website onAug 15, 2007:

Well we made it to the other side of the funeral ok. It was sad but mixed with many laughs, as you cannot talk about Clark Houston without a few chuckles. I wanted to share some of the neat things about Mandi’s grandpa that were said over the last 3 days. One thing that was often repeated by so many people was that Clark gave then their start in their life’s work. He was a very smart businessman and helped many get their businesses off the ground. Another thing often repeated was that Clark had a nickname for everyone in the world, mine was “Setharias”, Mandi’s was “Maben”, Kaylie’s was “Kaylie bug”, Addie’s was “Adder Pat”, Tom’s was “Mode”, and the list goes on. It was touching when Tom asked everyone who had a nickname to raise their hand and the packed chapel and overflow all raised their hand. He then said, “Go home and write it down because you won’t ever hear it again.” The Bishop of Clark’s ward is Polynesian and he got up at the end and said he even had a nickname, “Bishop Hula Man.” Another funny one was Kevin Ence’s. He was “Kelvinator the refrigerator.” The Bishop told a story that touched Mandi deeply. He told of Clark in a church meeting asking how much money it would take to provide Christmas to everyone who needed it in the ward. The Bishop said, Clark that is a substantial number. Clark said just give me a number Bishop, so the Bishop gave him a number and Clark pulled his check book out and wrote a check to the Bishop for twice the amount. It turns out Clark secretly gave much to those in need because many helped him when he had a young family to feed and got so sick he couldn’t work. I also loved something Kevin Ence said, it was no secret that Clark did very well financially and Kevin said, “Clark gave financial assistance to many but more importantly he knew when not to give financial assistance in those instances when it would only do more harm than good. He knew when you needed to just work through it and learn from the hard times.” I thought this was so fitting and true. Clark was one of a kind and we will all miss his terrible, very loud singing, his nicknames, his shock you sense of humor, and his big very strong hand shakes and hugs. He loved Mandi deeply and was not at all slow to tell her. He constantly told her how much he loved her and how beautiful she was. Whenever I saw him he said, “Hi Setharias, good to see me. How’s my pretty Maben doing.” He also loved out girls and little Dylan. The girls were a little timid around such volume but he could always get a kiss out of them. He even called one day and asked Mandi if she could bring Dylan up because he just wanted to see him. This was one of the last times we saw Grandpa Clark. At this time he had also just bought a huge tackle box at a garage sale and he let me pick whatever I wanted out of it. I got to spend many hunting, 4 wheeling, post cutting and deer looking trips with Clark and they were all very very fun. He is just crazy that’s the only way to explain it. One particular time I saw a deer and was looking at it with my binoculars and Cark pulled out his monocular (he was blind in one eye). I started laughing because I had never seen a monocular before and he said, “Setharias, what are you laughing at, I got this for half price!” Finally my Clark story that touched me the most was one time when Mandi and I were dating we were at his ranch having a dinner together. At this point I still thought I wanted to be a hippie, longer hair, you remember that phase. Well if you know Clark he is a real cowboy all the way to the core so you can see kind of a conflict in styles. One of the Shamo’s (Clark’s good friends) was teasing me not mean or anything just having fun and Clark who didn’t know me hardly at all said, “Don’t you let Setharias fool you he comes from very good stock over to that Bear Valley country.” (Clark grew up in Panguitch). No one could have paid me a greater compliment that touched me so deeply and now when I am faced with decisions in life I often think back to what Clark said and try to live up to my heritage. Mandi and I will definitely miss her grandpa. He always made sure we knew he loved us by telling Mandi, kissing the girls, and making me the brunt of a joke. I will end by saying it again because it is so true he was one of a kind. He used to always say, “Well he up and died and we haven’t heard from him since.” That’s how Tom ended his talk and it seemed so fitting.