E. CLIFFORD MORK 1959-1962

(From the Wednesday, August 15, 1962 Duluth News-Tribune)

Rites for Mayor Mork To Be Friday Afternoon

Funeral services for Duluth Mayor E. Clifford Mork, who died in his home at 2:30 a.m. Tuesday of a coronary occlusion, will be at 2 p.m. Friday in the Gloria Dei Lutheran Church, Sixth Avenue East and Third Street.

Rev. Wilbert Johnson, pastor of Gloria Dei, and Rev. D. Walter Lyngdal, pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church, will be officiating ministers. Mr. Mork was a member of Gloria Dei. Pastor Lyngdal was a close friend of the mayor.

Burial will be in the family plot in Union Cemetery on the Hermantown Road. Pallbearers and honorary pallbearers will be named today.

The mayor's personal physician was called to the Mork home, 1612 Waverly Ave, at 2 a.m. by his wife when she noticed him ill in bed. The physician said the mayor died shortly after he arrived.

Mr. Mork had never been seriously ill before, the physician stated. There had been no indication of a heart ailment. The mayor would have been 57 years old Aug. 22.

Mr. Mork appeared well at Monday night's City Council meeting. He spent an hour or so after the session discussing city affairs with Duane Rappana, council president; Sherman Iverson, city councilman, and Harry Reed, executive secretary of the Governmental Research Bureau, Inc.

He became Duluth's 30th mayor in the spring of 1959. His term would have expired next spring. He was planning to seek re-election.

He was the first Duluth mayor to die in office since the city's first mayor, J. B. Culver, died during his second term in 1883. Culver had first served in 1870.

Mr. Mork and his wife, Evelyn, his only survivor, operated Mork Food Supply, 605 W. 1st St., a business started by his father.

His full name was Emil Clifford Mork. He said he used the initial E. because there was another Emil Mork in Duluth.

He was graduated as an honor student from Central High School in 1922. He was a high jumper with the school track team.

Mr. Mork served as district director for the Office of Price Stabilization in Duluth during the early 1950s and for eight years was a member of the Duluth Board of Education. He was a long-time Democratic-Farmer-Labor party member.

He was president of the Minnesota Food Retailers Association in 1947-49 and headed the Duluth Retail Grocers and Meat Dealers Association for four years.

Mr. Mork launched the Gateway Urban Renewal plan, guided it through the City Council and Duluth Housing and Redevelopment Authority and used his influence with Sen. Hubert H. Humphrey and Rep. John A. Blatnik to get fast, favorable federal action on the project.

Formation of a business development corporation by members of the Duluth Area Redevelopment Administraton fulfilled one of his campaign promises.

He appointed a citizens' advisory committee for a proposed arena-auditorium. He had planned to attend the meeting of the committee Tuesday night.

The Morks had no children. They were an extremely close couple. While Mr. Mork served as mayor, his wife operated their store.

His death was mourned by associates in Washington, D.C., St. Paul and Duluth.

"I believe he was the most dedicated man that I have ever known," Iverson said. "Mr. Mork lived public service and was completely honest and fearless. His death is a terrible schock (sic) to the community."

Gov. Elmer L. Anderson said, "I am deeply distressed. Mayor Mork was dedicated to the upbuilding of Duluth. He can be said to have died while striving mightily to serve his community."

"It is with very deep regret and heartfelt sorrow that I learned of the death of my old friend, Mayor Mork," Blatnik said in Washington. "He has been a sincere and devoted public servant, so vitally interested in Duluth and its welfare that he frequently sacrificed his personal health and business in its favor."

Harold W. Grams, Virginia, chairman of the St. Louis County Republican party, said, "Every citizen recognizes the long civic service rendered to Duluth by Mr. Mork and appreciates the many projects he has tried to complete for the city. Our sympathy is wholeheartedly with his family."

Senator Humphrey expressed himself as "shocked and saddened" and termed Mayor Mork "an outstanding leader, a tireless worker for the betterment of Duluth." Mayor Mork's "shoes will be hard to fill," the senator said. "All his friends mourn his passing."

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