Obituary

Betty Clark 1915-2002

Betty Clark died just two months after J Desmond Clark to whom she had been married for 64 years. Her great contribution to archaeology through tireless support of her husband's work deserves to be recorded and remembered with gratitude and respect.

Betty and Desmond knew each other as Cambridge undergraduates, at Newnham and Christ's Colleges respectively. They married in 1938 and made their home at Livingstone in Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia) where Desmond had been appointed Curator of the Rhodes-Livingstone Museum. Desmond's absences from home were often prolonged, both on archaeological investigations and on military service, but Betty kept the home fires burning. Their two children, John and Elizabeth, were brought up at this time. As soon as the children were old enough, Betty accompanied Desmond on fieldwork.

Betty was an expert draftswoman and virtually all Desmond's publications benefited hugely from her superb drawings of artefacts. (When I first knew the family, at Kalambo Falls in 1963, it was John who drew the pottery and Betty the lithics.) She actively supported all Desmond's work, typing texts (she had to: no-one else could read his handwriting) and managing camps. This latter task became even more demanding when, in 1961, the Clarks left Africa for Berkeley, California, and began to cater - both educationally and gastronomically - for increasing numbers of students. Here, Betty's standards were high, as they were in everything that she did. I remember her complaining with feigned incredulity that there was no white Chianti, only red, to be had in the whole of Mzuzu, Malawi.

Desmond's numerous graduate students, African and American, invariably respect Betty's memory. Her tongue could be sharp, for she invariably said what she thought, but this only served to enhance her innate kindness and integrity. Contrary to some expectations in the 1960s, she and Desmond were happy and successful in Berkeley and they remained there after Desmond's retirement in 1986, becoming United States citizens in 1993. In later years Betty was cruelly afflicted by arthritis but her spirit continued and she died peacefully in England in April.

David W Phillipson

dwp1000@cus.cam.ac.uk

Cambridge University Museum of Archaeology & Anthropology
Downing Street
Cambridge
CB2 3DZ
England

We reproduce here, by way of a tribute, one of Betty's fine illustrations for Desmond Clark's last book , Kalambo Falls Volume III, Cambridge University Press 2001. The book itself is currently being reviewed by John McNabb, University of Southampton, England, for publication in the June (2002/2) issue of this journal

Elongate ovate handaxe made from fine-grained hard quarztite, Site B, Upper Acheulean, Horizon V.

© Western Academic & Specialist Press Ltd 2002