My Uncle Clark

A few weeks ago, a guy who was in charge of the hostel La Na Vila in Brazil (my first week) posted a blog post about all the projects he’s worked on in the past year. These projects are remarkable – for one, he moved to Sweden and noticed two things: he had a lot of Ikea furniture and he needed friends. So he married the two concepts, and started making simple Youtube videos about making friends through putting together Ikea furniture. It worked, he got his furniture all set up, made friends, and he also spurred a lot of people in the area doing the same thing. Soon, he was being written about in all the papers, was on talk shows, and generally got recognition for such a technologically easy-to-do task. 

He ALSO started a Tumblr about recommending your exes to other people. Let’s say you break up with someone and (after a while of course) you realize they might actually be perfect for someone else. Recommend them! This could’ve been an app, and now probably is in some other part of the world, but he didn’t have the time or resources to make an app fast, so he went to Tumblr. This generated the same kind of buzz as the Ikea project. He made a ton of other stuff too: stickers that say “NOT AVAILABLE ON THE APP STORE” for example. All cool ideas, very simple, and got very popular, very fast.

The thing is, he didn’t advertise this about himself while working at the hostel. He was more of a behind-the-scenes type of guy, there to chat with about our ideas for our project and make sure we all semi-behaved. Not that I wasn’t interested in talking to him, but we were busy at the hostel, there were 20 people participating to befriend, as well as the task of reaching 2 billion people within 4 years, and I never really got super friendly with him. I really wish I had now! I have so many questions and got so inspired by him. I have an idea for an app that I’ve been inching along with developing now for a few months, but the tricky part is the development – now I’m wondering if I really need an app at all. Is there another way to spread the message and idea around? We shall see.

I bring this up because everyone has stories you don’t know about, everyone has something interesting to share, and you will never know unless you ask. Its not too late to ask him now though (although it would’ve been a little more ideal to ask him when I was in Brazil).

This really hit home for me this past weekend, as my uncle, my mom’s brother, passed away suddenly. 

I’ve always known him, of course. Uncle Clark was a gregarious, funny, witty, and outrageously goofy dude, the kind of guy who made any experience a little more lighthearted and enjoyable. He never tried to be the center of attention, was funny in a way that didn’t make fun of anyone, and could talk about absolutely anything with anyone: from baseball stats to religion to your own zip code (oh he knew a lot about every zip code, seriously) he could chat you up forever. He owned his own window and door company out in LA, Clark Adams Windows and Doors, and every time he interviewed a potential employee, he had them take a personality test (not like the Myers Briggs…its different, a little more involved) just because he was interested in how different personalities work together. I remember my mom got the test done for my brother as a gift. 

My uncle and grandma in the 70s? 80s?

Why it hit home so hard is mostly because sure, I knew these things about him and I saw him 2-3 times a year and always got to talk with him, but I never really knew him. Now I won’t get the chance. Thanks to Facebook, though, I’ve gotten the chance to see flashes of who he was: I’ve been reading what hundreds of people have been saying about him and it is absolutely awe-inspiring. He was a genuinely amazing guy. And just smart as anything. My grandma and mom got lunch with me yesterday, and they sat in thought for a little while, just wondering if they’d ever really seen him angry. Never, they decided, never angry, never stressed out (at least if he was, he never let it show). To be not stressed out over running your own business (as well as owning several real estate properties), being a family man, and being a man of true Mormon faith? That’s something very special.

My favorite thing someone has posted about him on his daughter Lindsey (my cousin’s) Facebook wall is this: "A few weeks ago on The Pioneer Trek we were doing a family "cheer/role call". I asked him, Do you remember your "Janitor Craig Role Call" from The Roadshow? He said in classic Clark form: " Why no Peg, I choose to live my life in the present and not dwell on the past!" (hehe.. He just forgot it!)" 

I laughed at pretty hard at his response – that is the Uncle Clark I know and will never forget. I can picture exactly how he said it (with a smile on his face, and dare I say, a twinkle in his eye) and makes me happy that this is the way people will remember him – a fun-loving guy who never seemed to take things too seriously. I feel for my cousins, they were all extremely close with him and so so fond of him. He is their hero. I feel for my mom, this is her only brother. They shared a whole childhood together. I feel for my grandparents, who are in total disbelief – he is their only son. 

Clark and my mom (aren't they cuties???)

Seriously the best looking family I've ever seen.

My family is going out to LA for the funeral next weekend – my first time out to LA in maybe….10 years? Maybe more (I went to San Francisco 2 years ago but didn’t make it down south). I’m looking forward to seeing all my cousins and that whole side of the family that I never see, I just wish it was under different circumstances.

Here’s something my mom wrote about her brother right after it happened, I think it sums up who he is pretty nicely:

The world just lost a unique individual. I've never been able to adequately describe Clark . He was outgoing, smart and funny, and a wonderful family man, father, husband, son, grandson, nephew and brother. He was a lifelong businessman and student. He was irrepressible and obsessive (sound familiar?) and learned everything there was to know about the things he cared about (the Dodgers, growing peppers and cactus, smoking meat, real estate, personal interactions, business, windows, and jokes. Always jokes.). As a child he was obsessed with electronics and cars and history and geography (and teasing me  and everyone else it seems). He visited all the state capitals. He remembered obscure dates (completion of the transcontinental railroad, his best friend Mark's father's birthday). The two of us once drove across country without stopping because he couldn't bear to be away from God's country (Southern California). Quite simply, Clark brought joy to everyone who was lucky enough to know him. My mom, Bj Adams and dad, Clark, and little Clark's wife, Jill Adams, and their daughters Ashley Adams, Lindsey Fieldsted and Hayley Choate and their families and cousin Kathy Conole and her family and Uncle Steve and Aunt Marion and their families and all his friends and relatives are going to miss him terribly. I know his business friends and his LDS community will feel his absence too. I pray that the Dodgers don't go all the way this year because I would hate for him to miss that. But if they do, Lindsey Fieldsted will be happy, so ok. Even if it means the Nats don't. Anyway, I'm crying now, so I'll stop.

And my grandma put together a blog post full of really cool pix: http://bjadamsmallwork.blogspot.com/2014/07/clark-golden-adams-ii-tribute.html

Never take for granted the people around you and the things you can learn from them. Really. RIP Uncle Clark.