John Harvey Clark Jr., 52 of Spearfish S.D. honorably left his earthly home to be with his Lord and Savior on March 31, 2012 surrounded by his loving wife Donna, son Matt and family.

Visitation will be from 4:00-7:00 P.M. on Wednesday April 4, 2012 at Fidler-Isburg Funeral Chapel. Funeral Services will be at 10:00 A.M. on Thursday, April 5, 2012 at the Spearfish United Methodist Church with Pastor Steve Agan officiating. Burial will follow at Rose Hill Cemetery.

John (B.J.) came into this world on December 30th, 1959 at Lemmon S.D the son of John Harvey and Shirlene Mae (Uhrig) Clark Sr. John attended all twelve of his school years in Buffalo, S.D. After graduation in (1978), John set out to concur the world working jobs such as a union iron worker in Seattle WA, specialized fishing tools repairman for Bowen Tools in Casper WY, and seismograph worker in Tuscan AZ.

Never feeling satisfied, God led John back to his Harding County home where he met the love of his life Donna Lynn Jongeling. In August1981 John popped the question and the couple were engaged. Then on June 12th, 1982 John's dream came true as these two love birds were united in marriage in Buffalo. He was often quoted as saying, "I used all my luck up when I convinced Donna to marry me. I am the luckiest man in the world!"

John and Donna continued to reside in Buffalo where he worked for D&S Construction as a heavy equipment operator. In 1983 the couple moved to Belle Fourche where John used his skills learned at D&S to operate a scraper for American Colloid. On April 2nd, 1984, Donna gave birth to their beautiful daughter Tara Lynn Clark.


After hard times hit American Colloid, John and Donna headed west to the mountains of Belgrade MT close to where Donnas' parents lived. There John went to work turning and building log homes for Lumber Jack Log Homes. The next skill he learned was operating a large tree clipper for Raven Logging and Matson logging.

On October 2nd, 1988, Donna gave birth to his son Matthew Roger Clark. Shortly thereafter, they purchased their first home in Belgrade. An opportunity came along to stay closer to home, so John took a job with Boylan Excavating installing natural gas and power lines for Montana Power.

In 1999 they moved back to Spearfish where John took a job with Duffield Construction. Working up to a foreman position, John specialized in directional drilling and the installation and repair of fiber optics, gas lines and power lines. After a close call from a brain aneurism, doctor bills forced John and Donna to sell their home in Spearfish and move back to Bozeman where John worked for Rocky Mountain Contractors as a lead man for natural gas installation.

2005 brought another move back to Spearfish where once again John went to work for Duffield Construction as a foreman where John Clark and John Duffield grew to be great friends and confidants. John continued to work for Duffield Construction until May 2011 where surgery from a back injury turned into a hard fought battle with cancer.

Whether it was operating drilling machines, tree clippers, dozers, scrapers, excavators, spider plows, blasting rock, welding, or wood working, John was extremely talented and humble. He was like a sponge as he absorbed the skills from his mentors like his late father in law Roger, where he learned a great deal about cars and woodwork. There was very little that he could not accomplish with his hands and a little willpower. His talents can be seen everywhere you look around his home, and his work ethic was witnessed and admired by all that worked with him over the years. As talented as he was, John said his greatest accomplishment was his wife Donna, daughter Tara , son Matt and "his honey bunches of oats" granddaughter Xavia who meant the world to him.

John's hobbies included hunting, fishing, and remodeling houses.

John is survived by his wife Donna, one daughter Tara, son Matthew, & granddaughter Xavia, all of Spearfish S.D., four sisters, Renee (Stuart) Guptil of Buffalo, Norma Vrondran, and Larry Baucom of Sioux Falls S.D., Laura (Chad) Trapp of Sioux Falls, Jo Dee Piekkola, of Buffalo; one brother, Mark (Sara) Clark of Lexington TN; mother-in-law Elaine Jongeling; and numerous extended family members.

John was proceeded in death by his parents, step-father, Ronald Piekkola, father-in-law Roger Jongeling & brother-in-law David Hoyt.