Joe Nelson Clarke

Obituary

Joe Nelson Clarke

September 22, 1939 – March 12, 2025

Joe Nelson Clarke, 85, passed away at the Worland Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center on March 12, 2025, due to complications from Pancreatic Cancer.

Joe was born on September 22, 1939, in Mishawaka, Indiana. He was the 4th of five children born to Donald Bond and Evelyn May (Beal) Clarke.

The family moved to Wyoming the Summer of 1946. Joe received his formal education from Manderson High School before enlisting in the United States Navy where he served from December 1956 to September 1960, then re-enlisted after getting married believing he would be called back due to the Bay of Pigs Invasion.

He married Carol May Dye on May 20, 1961 in Sheridan, Wyoming. The couple lived in Manderson, WY for a brief time after marriage where their first son, Donald, was born, then moved to Okinawa, Japan during Joe's deployment. After returning to the States, the family traveled for a few years before moving to Gillette, WY, then back home to Manderson where sons, David and Gary, and daughter, Dianna, were born making their family complete.

The family then moved to Wright, Wyoming in 1979. Joe made his career in the oilfields of Wyoming starting as a roughneck, then drilling and pumping, and eventually became a drilling and work over consultant, retiring in 2009 after the economic crash. With the oilfield being a boom or bust industry, Joe was able to enroll in Cabinetmaking classes at Western Dakota Technical Institute where he graduated with a diploma in 1998. During the slow oil field months, he enjoyed making cabinets and other wood projects in his shop.

Joe often put on a façade with a gruff exterior, but those that knew him well knew he would take the shirt off his back for friends and family. He was generous, faithful, and believed in Jesus as his Lord and Savior. He loved the mountains and spent as much time as he could, especially in his younger years taking the boys, fishing and camping.

Joe was preceded in death by his parents; brother, Duane and sister, Vernita Gordan. Survivors include his wife, Carol May Clarke of Gillette, WY; daughter, Dianna Flinner of Gillette, Wyoming; sons, Donald (Lisa) Clarke of Boise, Idaho, David (Angie) Clarke of Nacogdoches, Texas and Gary Clarke, also of Boise; brother, Larry (JoAnn) Clarke of Gresham, Oregon; sister, Donna Anna of Broken Bow, Oklahoma; 8 grandchildren and 9 great-grandchildren.

A Celebration of Life will be held later this summer in the Big Horn Mountains. Online condolences may be made to www.bryantfuneralhomeonline.com.