Home County: Ray
Term of Service at the Supreme Court of Missouri: January 1939 – June 1950
Judge Albert M. Clark was born March 4, 1879, in Lawson, Missouri.[i] He was educated in the public schools there before attending the Presbyterian College of Upper Missouri.[ii] He then went to Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, to further his education.[iii]
Upon his graduation, he was admitted to The Missouri Bar in June 1900.[iv] From 1913 through 1916, he served as the Ray County prosecuting attorney.[v] He was later elected as a state representative in the 1916 general election and reelected in 1918.[vi] After serving in the Missouri House of Representatives, he represented the 8th District of Missouri as a member of the 1922-1923 Missouri Constitutional Convention.[vii]
In November 1930, Clark was elected to a four-year term as state senator and was reelected in the fall of 1934 for a second term.[viii] During his time in both chambers of the state legislature, he was a member of the Judiciary Committee as well as numerous other committees.[ix] While serving as senator in the 57th General Assembly, he was chairman of the Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence.[x] Clark served as president pro tem of the Senate in the Fifty-Eighth General Assembly and served as acting governor of Missouri on several occasions.[xi] Throughout his 38 years of practicing law, he became an expert in the interpretation and application of statutory law.[xii]
Judge Clark was nominated as the Democratic nominee for the Supreme Court of Missouri during the 1938 primary election.[xiii] On November 8, 1938, he was elected judge of the Court for Division No. 1 for a 10-year term, that began in January of 1939, and was set to expire at the end of December 1948.[xiv] Within the first twenty days after taking office, Judge Clark handed down his first opinion.[xv] He authored another judicial opinion that was selected for publication in the American Law Reports and became one of the country’s leading cases on the subject of first impression, within his first six months with the Court.[xvi] He also wrote an article about the history of the Court that was featured in the Missouri Historical Review.[xvii] From March 16, 1945, to September 9, 1946, he served as chief justice.[xviii] In 1948, he was retained in office for a 12-year term on a nonpartisan ballot under the Missouri Court Plan.[xix]
During his time on the Court, Judge Clark was highly involved with judicial reform because of his extensive experience within the judiciary branch. He helped prepare a new civil code, the legislature adopted in 1943, and was chosen by the Court to take charge of drafting a new children’s code.[xx] He also was selected to author drafts for the committees for the Judicial Conference and The Missouri Bar for the judicial section for the 1945 state constitutional convention.[xxi] There he was particularly effective in the creation of the system of the Magistrates’ Courts.[xxii] “Judge Clark contributed to the formation of the Judicial Conference of Missouri by legislative act, and to the preparation of rules governing the nominating commissions under the new Missouri Court Plan.”[xxiii] The Court, with his leadership, made revisions to ensure that the state judiciary would provide access to legal representation for impoverished defendants.[xxiv] Their leadership in that work and “the acceptance of the new principles by the trial courts throughout the state, brought the Court and the state high commendation by a Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.”[xxv]
Judge Clark died June 9, 1950, while a judge with the Court, at the age of 71 in Jefferson City, Missouri.[xxvi]
[i] Dwight H. Brown, Secretary of State, Dwight H. Brown, ed., Official Manual, State of Missouri, 1939-1940, (Jefferson City, Missouri: Midland Printing Company, 1940), 129.
[ii] Walter H. Toberman, Secretary of States, Esther Downs Bishop, ed., Official Manual, State of Missouri, 1949-1950, (Jefferson City, Missouri: Mid-State Printing Company, 1950), 219.
[iii] Walter H. Toberman, Secretary of States, Esther Downs Bishop, ed., Official Manual, State of Missouri, 1949-1950, (Jefferson City, Missouri: Mid-State Printing Company, 1950), 219.
[iv] Walter H. Toberman, Secretary of States, Esther Downs Bishop, ed., Official Manual, State of Missouri, 1949-1950, (Jefferson City, Missouri: Mid-State Printing Company, 1950), 219.
[v] Dwight H. Brown, Secretary of State, Dwight H. Brown, ed., Official Manual, State of Missouri, 1939-1940, (Jefferson City, Missouri: Midland Printing Company, 1940), 129.
[vi] Supreme Court of Missouri, Memorial to Judge Albert M. Clark: Judge of the Supreme Court 1939-1950 (Jefferson City, MO: Supreme Court of Missouri), February 20, 1951, 3.
[vii] Supreme Court of Missouri, Memorial to Judge Albert M. Clark: Judge of the Supreme Court 1939-1950 (Jefferson City, MO: Supreme Court of Missouri), February 20, 1951, 3.
[viii] Supreme Court of Missouri, Memorial to Judge Albert M. Clark: Judge of the Supreme Court 1939-1950 (Jefferson City, MO: Supreme Court of Missouri), February 20, 1951, 3.
[ix] Supreme Court of Missouri, Memorial to Judge Albert M. Clark: Judge of the Supreme Court 1939-1950 (Jefferson City, MO: Supreme Court of Missouri), February 20, 1951, 3. See also: Dwight H. Brown, Secretary of State, Dwight H. Brown, ed., Official Manual, State of Missouri, 1939-1940, (Jefferson City, Missouri: Midland Printing Company, 1940), 129.
[x] Supreme Court of Missouri, Memorial to Judge Albert M. Clark: Judge of the Supreme Court 1939-1950 (Jefferson City, MO: Supreme Court of Missouri), February 20, 1951, 3.
[xi] Supreme Court of Missouri, Memorial to Judge Albert M. Clark: Judge of the Supreme Court 1939-1950 (Jefferson City, MO: Supreme Court of Missouri), February 20, 1951, 3.
[xii] Supreme Court of Missouri, Memorial to Judge Albert M. Clark: Judge of the Supreme Court 1939-1950 (Jefferson City, MO: Supreme Court of Missouri), February 20, 1951, 5.
[xiii] Supreme Court of Missouri, Memorial to Judge Albert M. Clark: Judge of the Supreme Court 1939-1950 (Jefferson City, MO: Supreme Court of Missouri), February 20, 1951, 7.
[xiv] Walter H. Toberman, Secretary of States, Esther Downs Bishop, ed., Official Manual, State of Missouri, 1949-1950, (Jefferson City, Missouri: Mid-State Printing Company, 1950), 219.
[xv] Supreme Court of Missouri, Memorial to Judge Albert M. Clark: Judge of the Supreme Court 1939-1950 (Jefferson City, MO: Supreme Court of Missouri), February 20, 1951, 5 and 6.
[xvi] Supreme Court of Missouri, Memorial to Judge Albert M. Clark: Judge of the Supreme Court 1939-1950 (Jefferson City, MO: Supreme Court of Missouri), February 20, 1951, 6.
[xvii] Albert M. Clark, “The Supreme Court of Missouri,” Missouri Historical Review, vol. 37, issue 2, January 1943, 162, information courtesy of the State Historical Society of Missouri, Missouri Historical Review Database, accessed on May 14, 2019, available from https://digital.shsmo.org/digital/collection/mhr/id/18652 Paper copy of document in permanent file in the law library.
[xviii] Walter H. Toberman, Secretary of State, Esther Downs Bishop, ed., Official Manual, State of Missouri, 1949-1950, (Jefferson City, Missouri: Mid-State Printing Company, 1950), 219.
[xix] Supreme Court of Missouri, Memorial to Judge Albert M. Clark: Judge of the Supreme Court 1939-1950 (Jefferson City, MO: Supreme Court of Missouri), February 20, 1951, 7. See also: Walter H. Toberman, Secretary of State, Esther Downs Bishop, ed., Official Manual, State of Missouri, 1949-1950, (Jefferson City, Missouri: Mid-State Printing Company, 1950), 219.
[xx] Supreme Court of Missouri, Memorial to Judge Albert M. Clark: Judge of the Supreme Court 1939-1950 (Jefferson City, MO: Supreme Court of Missouri), February 20, 1951, 6.
[xxi] Supreme Court of Missouri, Memorial to Judge Albert M. Clark: Judge of the Supreme Court 1939-1950 (Jefferson City, MO: Supreme Court of Missouri), February 20, 1951, 8 and 9.
[xxii] Supreme Court of Missouri, Memorial to Judge Albert M. Clark: Judge of the Supreme Court 1939-1950 (Jefferson City, MO: Supreme Court of Missouri), February 20, 1951, 6.
[xxiii] Supreme Court of Missouri, Memorial to Judge Albert M. Clark: Judge of the Supreme Court 1939-1950 (Jefferson City, MO: Supreme Court of Missouri), February 20, 1951, 6.
[xxiv] Supreme Court of Missouri, Memorial to Judge Albert M. Clark: Judge of the Supreme Court 1939-1950 (Jefferson City, MO: Supreme Court of Missouri), February 20, 1951, 6.
[xxv] Supreme Court of Missouri, Memorial to Judge Albert M. Clark: Judge of the Supreme Court 1939-1950 (Jefferson City, MO: Supreme Court of Missouri), February 20, 1951, 6.
[xxvi] “Albert M. Clark Death Certificate,” Missouri Death Certificates, 1910-1968, accessed on April 30, 2019, available from https://s1.sos.mo.gov, information courtesy of Missouri Death Certificates Database, Missouri Digital Heritage, Missouri State Archives. Paper copy of document in permanent file in the law library. See also: Supreme Court of Missouri, Memorial to Judge Albert M. Clark: Judge of the Supreme Court 1939-1950 (Jefferson City, MO: Supreme Court of Missouri), February 20, 1951, 9.
Biographical information authored by Ms. Chloe Shoemaker, 2019, University of Missouri-Columbia, Missouri.