MCCOOK, Neb.-
Being a judge can be demanding. Being a judge in a small town presents its own special challenges.
Just ask Judge Cloyd Clark, who is retiring at the end of the month as 11th Judicial District county court judge after 34 years on the bench.
“It promotes a lot of accountability,” Clark admitted, saying he would invariably bump into someone at a store or local event whom he had seen in court days earlier.
But that can also be a good thing at times. He recalls one incident when he ran out of gas on a country road and had to stop at the nearest farmhouse to ask for help. The man who answered the door was someone Clark hadn’t expected: Someone he had sentenced to jail a few months earlier for an alcohol-related charge.
At first, Clark admitted he was momentarily shocked. But the man turned out to be very gracious and ended up being “the nicest man in the world,” Clark remembered.
“He knew he deserved that jail time,” Clark said.
Clark was first elected in 1972 and faced a rudimentary probation and mental health system in Nebraska that was just beginning to expand.
“Developing the new system was challenging,” he remembered. Probation officers consisted of one for District Court and one for juveniles, he said, compared to the team now in place. Alcohol counseling was unheard of and the mental health system was still in its infancy.
And services in rural areas usually lagged behind those in larger areas, which Clark sought to change.
“I never let the limited population deter people from receiving the same kind of services those in larger areas had access to,” he said, such as counseling services and foster care.
The legal landscape in the 1970s was changing in other ways, too. Lawyers and judges were navigating the new Miranda rights and search-and-seizure laws that were being implemented and the welfare system was transitioning from a county-run operation to a program run by the state as Nebraska Health and Human Services.
Even his position itself had been revised. Clark was 30 years old when he was first elected and a few years later, the Nebraska Legislature amended the law and required the governor to appoint lawyer judges. Those already elected, like Clark, were grandfathered in.
Anne Paine of Oxford has been appointed to replace Clark.
“It’s been interesting,” Clark said of his career. “I take each case on an individual basis. That was a gift.”
Another gift Clark acknowledged is how the judicial system can change people’s lives.
“The law has the capacity to create successful individuals,” he said, if they choose to use it.
The unsung heroes of the courtroom are the lawyers, he added.
“Lawyers are wonderful people; they work hard to solve problems,” he said. “The only regret I have is that after I retire, they won’t have to laugh at my jokes anymore.”
Clark began his journey into law by a roundabout way. He first graduated from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln with a bachelor’s degree in political science and journalism, then took a year off to find out what he really wanted to do, he said.
The U.S. Army had an idea. He was drafted and served three years, afterward working at the Hastings Tribune.
He decided to go back to school and graduated with a law degree three years later, attending law school with a student he remembers as a very studious family man, Ben Nelson.
Clark practiced law in Elwood briefly before moving to McCook to practice with Sally Cunningham, before he was elected.
After banging the gavel for 30 years, Clark said, he has no definite plans for his retirement.
“I’ll figure something out,” he said. “Right now, I just plan on putting the clutch in and letting the engine idle for a while.”
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Information from: McCook Daily Gazette,
