Governor Chase Addison Clark

CHASE ADDISON CLARK, brother of Idaho governor Barzilla W. Clark, was born in Hendricks County, Indiana, on August 20, 1883. After moving with his family to Idaho, Clark attended the Idaho Falls public school system. However, he returned to Indiana to finish his high school studies. He then attended the University of Michigan Law School, but never graduated. He was admitted to the bar in 1904, and established a successful legal career in Mackey, Idaho. During World War I, he served in the army as a second lieutenant in a machine gun company. Clark entered politics in 1910, as a member of the Idaho House of Representatives, an office to which he was reelected to in 1912. He also served as a member of the Idaho State Senate from 1933 to 1936, and was Idaho Falls’ mayor from 1937 to 1938. Clark won the 1940 Democratic gubernatorial nomination and was elected Idaho’s eighteenth governor. During his tenure, an unfair sales law was enacted, a nonpartisan state board of corrections was created, the senior citizens act was improved, and the department of public health was separated into three agencies: the departments of public assistance, charitable institutions, and public health. After losing his reelection bid, Clark left office on January 4, 1943. Two months later, he secured an appointment as a federal district court judge, a position he held until his death. Governor Chase A. Clark died on December 29, 1966, and was buried at the Rose Hill Cemetery in Idaho Falls.