Adventurer in Hope

My dad, owner of a commercial painting business, noticed my interest and encouraged it by giving me books on architecture and taking me to his job sites. That spark set the foundation for everything.

And then, when I was 15, I met Ellen, the girl who would become my wife, my partner, and one of the greatest influences on my life. She shaped me as a person, deepened my business and community values, and gave me the courage to take chances.

Over the years, we faced our share of joy and heartbreak, challenges and success. And a few simple truths have stuck with me through it all:

Live by The Golden Rule:
‍Treat others the way you want to be treated.

Look for the Lesson, Even in Tragedy:
‍Tragedy can be unspeakably painful, but it can make us infinitely stronger and more compassionate if we are willing to learn as we grieve.

Always believe in the possibility of the world around you:
‍Inspiration shows up when you least expect it.

That moment came in 1984, when I started Clayco with not much more than grit, conviction, and a vision of doing things differently. We started with just two people. Today, we’re over 4,000 strong working in 45 cities across North America with a revenue of $8 Billion in 2025.

Clayco was never just about construction, it was about the art and science of building. It was about building relationships, solving problems, and creating spaces that elevate the human experience. We didn’t want to do business the usual way—we wanted to do it the right way. With transparency. With empathy. With purpose.

Later, we added our mantra, “Beyond These Walls,”  because Ellen encouraged me to earn a legacy beyond building bricks and mortar. The real value of what we build isn’t in concrete or steel, it’s in what happens inside those walls: innovation, collaboration, and human connection.

In 1988, we lost our second son, Bradley, and a year later we lost Ellen’s beloved father, David, due to a mysterious, rare disease. Then, in 2005, Ellen was diagnosed with the same rare disease that killed her father - RVCL, that slowly took her vision, her health, and ultimately her life in 2010. Through it all, she lived with grace, humor, and fierce strength.

To process my grief, I turned to travel, solo journeys that eventually took me to Nepal, where I trekked more than 200 miles through the Himalayas. It helped shift my grief toward gratitude for the love we had and the lessons we shared.

A few years later, I met Jane, a remarkable woman with a heart for community and service. She brought light back into my life. Jane trained in dental medicine at Penn and spent 18 years practicing in St. Louis before shifting her focus to nonprofit and community health. Together, we’ve taken dental missions to rural Nepal, and Jane now mentors the next generation of dental professionals.

We love living a nomadic life and believe that home is not a place but a person. We both love the arts, especially emerging Black, Indigenous, Asian, and Women artists, and we proudly support institutions like the Saint Louis Art Museum, the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, the Art Institute of Chicago, and Anderson Ranch Arts Center.

We focused on global issues like climate, health, space, and innovation, all through a shared lens of connection and collaboration. And what I learned is this: across every culture and language, we all want the same things. To protect our families. To do meaningful work. To leave a better world for the next generation.

This next chapter—Bob Clark Beyond—is about building lives, not just buildings. It’s about using the success we’ve created to fuel something larger: meaningful, long-lasting impact that lifts others up by supporting people, ideas, and movements that push us all forward. While the Clark Family has wide and varying interests to support, our key areas of focus are art, science, education, economic development, and leadership, especially in government.

This site is a place to share ideas, test new ones, and build something that outlasts us all. 

Let’s go beyond—together.