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REMEMBERING HAPPY TIMES IN BERKELEY
 You will always be in
our prayers and our hearts since we have so many happy memories of
the time spent there,” wrote Betty and Buford Clark in a recent
letter that accompanied a financial gift to ABSW.
More than 63 years ago,
Betty and Buford met in Berkeley and fell in love. They were students
at what was then called Berkeley Baptist Divinity School.
Buford headed up a
“gospel team” that visited Northern California churches, and he
needed a soloist and pianist. Betty volunteered. That was the fall of
1943. They were married on June 11, 1944.
That same year, amid
World War II, Betty and Buford started holding services at the
Richmond shipyards, ministering to service members, civilian
employees and their families.
They graduated together
in May 1945, a month after Buford’s ordination at First Baptist
Church of Berkeley, where Dr. Sanford Fleming, seminary president,
preached the ordination sermon.
“If it hadn’t been
for Berkeley, we probably would have never met,” Buford says.
He finished with a
master of divinity degree. Betty earned her M.A. in Christian
education. Two months later, the Clarks had their first of four
children.
Their ministry took
them to churches in Washington State and the San Diego area. Buford
finished his last pastorate in Coronado in 1967, but he continued to
preach.
Betty grew up in San
Diego. Her father, a math professor at San Diego State University,
was president of what was then called the San Diego City Mission
Society. Her grandparents were founding members of National City
Baptist Church.
Earlier this year, the
Clarks moved from San Diego to Allen, Texas, north of Dallas, to be
near one of their daughters and grandchildren. They have eight
grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren.
Without an American
Baptist church nearby, the Clarks have found a home in Southern
Baptist-affiliated First Baptist Church of Allen. However, Buford
notes, “We consider ourselves American Baptists no matter what.”
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