Clark, Elmer Talmage

Elmer Talmadge Clark (1886-1966) was a pastor, newspaper correspondent, editor, publicity manager, missionary secretary, and church historian. He joined the St. Louis Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, in 1909 and served pastorates in the St. Louis area. During World War II, he was a correspondent for the New York Tribune. In 1918 he became publicity and promotion director for the Missionary Centenary, a movement which raised more than fifty million dollars for home and foreign missions. He also served in a similar capacity for the Christian Education campaign.

After those campaigns Clark became editorial secretary of the Board of Missions and editor of World Outlook. In 1948 he was elected executive secretary of the Association of Methodist Historical Societies (AMHS). At Oxford, England, in 1951, he was elected secretary for the Western Hemisphere of the World Methodist Council (WMC).

Clark founded and edited World Parish, the bulletin issued jointly by these two organizations. In 1952 he resigned his office in the Board of Missions and moved to Lake Junaluska, North Carolina, to carry on the work of the AMHS and the WMC and to ensure the construction of the World Methodist Building. In 1961 he became secretary emeritus of the WMC.

Clark was editor-in-chief of The Journal and Letters of Francis Asbury, wrote twenty-seven mission study books, thirteen volumes of The Missionary Year Book, numerous articles, and helped compile the Encyclopedia of World Methodism.