Ralph Clark, longtime O.C. politician and booster, dies at 92

Ralph Clark, a former Orange County supervisor who helped usher Orange County into the modern era with his advocacy of mass transit in the 1970s and then angered Los Angeles with his successful push to move the Rams football team to Anaheim, has died. He was 92.

Clark died Saturday of heart failure after being hospitalized in Anaheim.

A Democrat in a Republican-dominated county, Clark was elected to four terms on the Board of Supervisors after serving on the Anaheim City Council and as the city’s mayor.

His tenure during the 1970s was marked by finance-related scandals that ensnared at least three of his supervisorial colleagues. Clark emerged unscathed, but when he announced that he wouldn’t seek reelection in 1986 after 16 years on the board, he cited recurring but unproved allegations that linked him to W. Patrick Moriarty, a businessman who’d been convicted on public corruption charges.

His age and health were major factors, Clark said, adding, “But being constantly linked to Mr. Moriarty’s legal troubles still is bothersome and hurts a whole lot . . . after so many years of public service free of even a whisper of impropriety.”

Born in 1917 in Columbus, Ohio, he moved with his family to Los Angeles as an infant. He came of age during the Great Depression and was a three-sport athlete at Loyola High School.

He joined the merchant marine during World War II and later joked that he spent the war “on a Pacific Island.” Pausing, he then provided the punch line: “Catalina Island. We called it Guadalcatalina.”

If the duty was easy, it was also fateful because Clark met his future wife as part of a USO show. They married in 1945 and had four children. He spent the last 50 years of his life in same Anaheim house with Beverly, his wife of 64 years.

Clark was running a service station when he decided to run for the council seat in Anaheim. His interest in public transportation, his wife says, stemmed from his interest in public service and what he saw as a void in the growing county.

Tom Daly, now Orange County’s clerk-recorder and a Clark staffer for eight years, said, “When you’re talking mass transit in the ‘70s, when Ralph was pushing for progress, it was the public bus system. It served three or four cities in the heart of the county then, and it grew to serving millions of riders.”

Clark’s years on the board coincided with the county’s emergence as a metropolitan area. One of the manifestations of that was bringing the Los Angeles Rams football team to Anaheim.

Clark formed the Committee to Relocate the Rams in 1978 and relished his role in bringing the team to Anaheim Stadium, although it retained its “Los Angeles” name. He made no apologies for his boosterism, contending that the team’s presence would be an economic boon to Orange County.

“That was a fun thing for him,” his wife said. “He was a football fan, a sports addict. He found out the Rams were available, so he just worked to get them here.”

The team came to Anaheim after the 1979 season and stayed for 15 years before moving to St. Louis. When courting the Rams, Clark said, “The people are wild about football in Orange County, insane about supporting a team.”

Clark is survived by his wife, two sons and a daughter. Another son preceded him in death. He is also survived by 12 grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren.

Funeral services are pending.

dana.parsons@latimes.com