Joseph Sill Clark Sr. (November 30, 1861 – April 14, 1956) was an American tennis player. Clark won the 1885 U.S. National Championship in doubles with partner Dick Sears. He was also the inaugural singles and doubles national collegiate champion, in 1883. When he died in 1956, he was Philadelphia's oldest practicing attorney.[2]
As a student at Harvard University, Joseph Clark won the U.S. intercollegiate singles and doubles titles in its inaugural staging, in the spring of 1883. In the singles, he defeated fellow Crimson player Dick Sears.[4]
Clark graduated Harvard in 1883 and later earned a law degree. He and his brother, Percy Hamilton Clark, opened a law practice at 321 Chestnut Street in Philadelphia. The practice centered on the "street railway, electric light, and power businesses" operated by E. W. Clark & Co.[5]
In 1885, he took the U.S. National lawn tennis doubles title, and also became champion of Canada, the first American to be so. Clark was also a semi-finalist at the U.S. National Championships lawn tennis singles in 1885, 1886, the same year he also won men's Mosseley Challenge Cup at the Bar Harbor Open, and 1887. In 1886 he won the Wentworth Invitation.In 1887 he the singles title at the Lenox Invitation in New York. He captured the unofficial 1887 and 1887 U.S. National mixed doubles championships with L. Stokes and Marian Wright (fr), respectively
On November 26, 1896, Clark married Kate Richardson Avery (1868-1951), whose family owned Avery Island in Louisiana.[6] She was the daughter of Dudley Avery (1810-1879), who was the brother-in-law of Tabasco sauce inventor Edmund McIlhenny (1815-1890).[7]
Their children included two sons: future Philadelphia mayor and U.S. Senator Joseph Sill Clark Jr.[8] and Avery B. Clark. They had at least three grandchildren: Joseph Jr.'s children Joseph S. Clark III and Noel (née Clark) Miller, and Avery's daughter Kate Avery Clark.[9]
^ abc"Joseph Clark". International Tennis Hall of Fame. Archived from the original on 2010-08-13. Retrieved 2010-12-08. In the spring of 1883, Joseph Clark represented Harvard with vigor, earning singles and doubles titles at the first U.S. Intercollegiate Championships. Two years later, the Philadelphian won the U.S. Doubles Championships with Dick Sears. Thereafter, Clark turned his attention to administrative endeavors. He worked his way assiduously up the USNLTA ladder from Secretary to Vice President on up to the Presidency, demonstrating in the process that his off-court skills were also admirably sharp.
United States