Ursula Mandenberg

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Ursula Mandenberg
Female silhouette.png
SexF
Death date1959
SpouseBrent Clark
Children
Ryan ClarkM1946

Ursula Clark née Mandenberg was the wife of Brent Clark. It is likely they married sometime in the late 1940s. Their marriage produced only one child, Ryan, who married Linda Caserowski. They had three grandchildren, Randy, Rachel and Ruth. Ursula died in a car crash in 1959.SQ29 As their son described it, "when she died a lot of the light went out of my father’s life and it never really returned."HC8

In The West Turtle Lake Club there are two suggestions that Brent and Ursula had a second son. Ursula was pregnant in 1954,WTLC20 and Wayne Clark left shares in Clark Plywood to both of his minor grandsons, the children of Brent Clark.WTLC40 There is no other reference to a second son in any of the other stories.

Ursula had studied architecture at a time when it was strictly a man's profession. Her selection to design Commons at West Turtle Lake Club was forced by the founder, Helga Matson, who had matchmaking plans and introduced her friend to her husband's best friend whose company Clark Construction was building it.HC8 While Brent was building his construction business, Ursula became an award winning, well-known architect. At least two of her designs were built by Brent.

  • Commons was a huge log dining hall for the West Turtle Lake Club "It had won architectural awards when it was built, and was featured in magazine articles and architectural books. It may have been the most famous building in the county."BAR787 "It shows up in a lot of architecture books, especially those dealing in large log construction."BB17
  • Spearfish Lake United Methodist Church was built (or rebuilt) in the 1950s. Ursula's design was described as "striking building with its soaring spire"CF26 The church was built by Clark Construction and it is implied the Clark family have been members there for some time.