Clark Barefoot

Clark Barefoot was born in 1926 in San Diego, California to Anson and Helen Barefoot. Anson was a multi-talented man who had owned a small diner, a water delivery business, and had worked as a machinist and baker. Clark grew up in a San Diego vastly different from the large, busy city it now is. Mission Valley was then “the country” and a place of truck farms. Clark grew up during the depression in the same house on Edgemont Street near Balboa Park until he left high school to join the Merchant Marines in 1944. As World War II was nearing its final stages, he served two tours in the Merchant Marines and saw much of the world as a sailor. After the war Clark completed his high school diploma and developed a love of motorcycles and motorcycle racing. He journeyed to Texas working as a motorcycle mechanic and racing, primarily flat track. He was good enough to compete one year at Daytona Beach road race, placing 15th in the amateur class on a factory-tuned BSA Gold Star. After a couple of years in Texas, Clark returned to the San Diego area, where he eventually met and married Ruth Espevold, a Wyoming native who was visiting friends in San Diego. Clark and Ruth settled in Colorado where Clark worked painting houses and buildings for several years, built his own home in Boulder, and became father to two sons, Darek (1956) and Ross (1959). In 1962 Clark moved his family to Fort Collins, Colorado and opened a motorcycle dealership for what was then a little-known Japanese brand of motorcycles called “Honda”--at a time when Japanese motorcycles were an object of derision among many hard-core motorcyclists. Selling both Honda and Triumph motorcycles through Fort Collins Cycle Center, Clark’s entry into the world of business was successful. He operated Fort Collins Cycle Center until 1967, at which time Clark and family moved back to San Diego, where he opened his second business, Southern Motorcycle Supply, a distributor of motorcycle parts and accessories. That business also was successful, and continues to operate under other ownership. In 1974 Clark made yet another, last career and business change, selling Southern Motorcycle Supply and starting a different wholesale distribution company, this time in the bicycle business. Bicycle Parts Pacific was to become Clark’s most successful business and operated under Clark and the management of Darek and Ross until 2001. Clark retired from business then but remained very involved in a number of activities about which he was passionate. In 1996 Clark and Ruth moved to Las Vegas and then in 2005 moved to Grand Junction Colorado, where both Ross and Darek lived with their families. A lifelong student of the Bible, Clark remained intellectually active in reading, studying, and writing about Christianity until just a few weeks before he died. On Sunday morning, February 4th, 2018, Clark died peacefully at home from heart failure at the age of 91. Clark is survived by Ruth, his wife of 67 years, as well as sons Darek and Ross, 8 grandchildren, and 2 great grandchildren.