David “Dave” Michael Clark of Little Rock and Destin, Florida, founder of Air Traffic Service Corp., an air cargo company, and former owner of Iron Horse Farm of Perryville, a breeder and trainer of thoroughbreds, died Sunday at 74.
Air Traffic Service started as a contract carrier for the automotive industry, flying assembly parts for Ford, General Motors and Chrysler. Air Traffic Service, a multimillion-dollar company in the 1980s, “has flown concert gear to Hawaii for David Bowie and to Australia for Billy Joel, as well as delivering military cargo to Bahrain for U.S. troops in the Persian Gulf,” according to a Nov. 9, 1987, profile of Clark in Arkansas Business.
In addition, a subsidiary, Interstate Airlines, which subcontracted with companies like UPS for package delivery, at one time “transported more than 90 percent of all American thoroughbreds that traveled by air,” that same article noted.
Clark bought and expanded H.E. “Tex” Sutton Forwarding, an equine air transportation company, and created the Clark Family Foundation, dedicated to supporting children’s health and well-being. The David Clark Heart Center at Arkansas Children’s Hospital is named for him.
Clark also served as president of the Arkansas Thoroughbred Breeders’ & Horsemen’s Association.
Born in Muskegon, Michigan, Clark is survived by his wife, Donna; daughter Laura Clark and her partner, Deborah Rawn; daughter Leslie Clark; son Robert Clark and his wife, Davina; daughter Elizabeth Taylor and her husband, William; and his brother, Robert W. Clark, and Robert’s wife, Jane. He has seven grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.
A memorial service is scheduled for 11 a.m. Friday, Oct. 23, at Roller-Chenal Funeral Home Chapel at 13801 Chenal Parkway in Little Rock.
Arrangements are by Roller-Chenal. Clark’s obituary can be read here.
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