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Welcome to Clark Memorial Library!

Librarians and library staff at Shawnee State University are dedicated both to the university's missions of teaching & learning, growth & development, and community service and also to fulfilling the OhioLINK vision of providing excellent library resources to all higher education constituencies in Ohio. 

Clark Memorial Library Location

Clark Memorial Library is located north of Massie Hall and east of the Vern Riffe Center for the Fine Arts on the Shawnee State University Campus.

Thanks to the generosity of a Portsmouth family, the Shawnee State University Board of Trustees in October of 1997 named its library the Clark Memorial Library.  It is dedicated to Mr. and Mrs. Clyde W. Clark, long time Portsmouth residents and supporters of the University.

Mr. Clark was born in 1896. He, along with William A. Burke and James B. Miller, purchased controlling interest in the then-named Ohio Stove Company, which subsequently became OSCO Industries, Inc. Mr. Clark served the company as its chief financial officer and secretary from 1943 to 1975 and then continued on its board of directors until his death in 1975.

Clyde W. Clark is described by those who knew him as a quiet, unassuming, frugal and particularly shrewd financial investor and businessman.

Rev. Max Sidders, retired minister of the Temple Baptist Church who officiated at Mr. Clark's funeral services, remembers Mr. Clark warmly. "He was a very kind man, easy to talk with, and sensible in his beliefs," Rev. Sidders said. "He was so worried about the handicapped attending church that Mr. Clark donated a stairway elevator so that disabled members could attend church services."

Rev. Sidders tells the story about Mr. Clark's being a Boy Scout who was quietly proud of the hatchet he had kept from his boyhood days. He stated that he was touched one day when Mr. Clark cleaned up the hatchet and gave it to him as a memento, but that after his death, the minister returned the hatchet to Mrs. Clark as a keepsake. Rev. Sidders also spoke warmly of Mrs. Clark. He reported that Maycel was instrumental in establishing the Bigelow Church in the 1980s which still stands as one of the nondenominational churches in the area.

Mrs. Clark was also the major donor of the Clark Planetarium on the Shawnee State campus which has provided educational support for university students and astronomy programs for the community since 1998.

Speaking of both gifts, Thomas B. Reynolds, chairman of the Shawnee State University Board of Trustees said, "It is very evident that Mrs. Clark wanted the legacy of her husband to be remembered in Southern Ohio by selecting these two important commemorative opportunities. Maycel is deeply devoted to her late husband, and these gifts will ensure that the Clark name is remembered well into the future." Dr. Clive C. Veri, president of the university, was awed by the gifts. "The library at any university is a center for research and learning, while a planetarium motivates youngsters to reach for the stars and learn more about math and science," he said. "We are ecstatic that Mrs. Clark wanted to see the Clyde W. Clark name live on in perpetuity and that she did so at Shawnee State University."

Clyde W. Clark was born in Marietta, Ohio. He was a graduate of The Ohio State University where he was a member of the Alpha Kappa fraternity. In 1922, he became a bookkeeper at the Portsmouth Stove and Range Co. (a competitor of the Ohio Stove Co.), and from 1924 until 1943, he was with the Southern Mortgage Co. located in the Masonic Temple Building on Chillicothe St. Mr. Clark was a member of the Portsmouth Elks Lodge, an outdoorsman, and an accomplished golfer.

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