Thomas Joseph Clark, Jr. (July 13, 1926 – May 6, 2020) was an American politician. He served as mayor of

Long Beach, California Long Beach is a city in Los Angeles County, California. It is the 42nd-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 466,742 as of 2020. A charter city, Long Beach is the seventh-most populous city in California. Incorporate ...

from 1975 to 1980 and from 1982 to 1984, as elected by the Long Beach City Council.

Life and career

Clark was born in

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the List of United States cities by population, eigh ...

and moved to Long Beach in 1933. He was a graduate of

Woodrow Wilson Classical High School Woodrow Wilson High School (colloquially known as Long Beach Wilson) is an American public high school located in Long Beach, California. This two-block campus is located approximately 1.5 miles from the Pacific Ocean, across from the Recreation ...

and an alumnus of

Long Beach City College Long Beach City College (LBCC) is a public community college in Long Beach, California. It was established in 1927 and is divided into two campuses, the Liberal Arts Campus in Lakewood Village and the Pacific Coast Campus in central Long Beach ...

and the

University of California at Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant univ ...

. He was an optometrist. In addition to serving as mayor, Clark was a member of the city council and its longest serving member, serving from 1965 to 1996. He had also served on the

Board of Trustees (from 1998 to 2013), and as president of the Community College League of California (CCLC), the California Community College Trustee (CCCT) Board, and the League of California Cities. He retired from his optometry practice in 1993, and from public office in 2014. He died in May 2020 at the age of 93.Former Long Beach Mayor Tom Clark dies at 93
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References

1926 births 2020 deaths Politicians from San Diego American optometrists Mayors of Long Beach, California California city council members Long Beach City College alumni University of California, Berkeley alumni {{California-mayor-stub