Philip Gale Clark was born on 28 June 1927 in Eden Prairie, Hennepin, Minnesota.
1,2,3 He died on 29 October 2014, at age 87, in Sioux Falls, Minnehaha, South Dakota.
3 He was buried on 3 November 2014 in Woodlawn Cemetery, Sioux Falls, Minnehaha, South Dakota.
4,5 Philip Gale Clark was a Farmer/ Owner-Clark Taylormade (Grain Bins & Elevators)/ HiRoller Conveyers/ Skyblue Winds in Hi Roller Conveyer Manufacturing Plant.
2,5 He was educated University of Minnesota. National Guard.
5 Philip Gale Clark passed peacefully October 29, 2014 at the age of 87. He was born on June 28, 1927 in Eden Prairie, Minnesota to Tom and Pansy Clark. He was raised on a farm that fought the rising floods of the Mississippi more years that not. From the beginning, he was destined to be a man of fortitude and persistence. He graduated from Eden Prairie High School in 1945. He went on to study agriculture at the University of Minnesota. Never being much for learning in the classroom, he didn't stay there long. Learning in a classroom just wasn't his forte. As fortune would have it, he was at the family farm when his sister brought home her college roommate, Joan Vance, for a visit. It might have been as close to love at first sight as there's ever been.
Phil and Joan were married December 27, 1950 in Worthington, Minnesota. Shortly thereafter, they got their first of many Boston Terriers. The family jokes that Joan must have insisted in their wedding vows that the couple always have a Boston Terrier, but in the end, Phil would not have had it any other way. After a stint in the National Guard, Phil and Joan returned to Eden Prairie where Phil worked the family farm and their first child, Christine, was born. Even for a man of perseverance, fighting floodwaters can get old. In 1954, Phil and Joan moved far from the banks of the mighty Mississippi to Rushmore, Minnesota where they farmed for a short while before purchasing a farm near Fulda, Minnesota. Lynn and Joel were born and the family grew to five - plus a Boston Terrier of course.
Always a farmer at heart, he announced to his family, who had grown to a wife, five children, a Boston Terrier and a Beagle (Joan made some exceptions), he was going to work for Butler Bins selling grain bins. Phil being who he is, it didn't take him longbefore he figured out how to build a better grain bin than Butler. He came up with his own design, put in his own bid, and won, beating out his employer. Phil was fired the next day by Butler, and thus started Phil's career designing and building grain elevators. Phil and the family returned to Worthington, Minnesota where he and John Taylor founded Clark Taylormade.
Phil's designs for building steel grain elevators were innovative and unique to the grain industry. Soon, Clark Taylormade bins were popping up all over the countryside in Midwest farm country. He designed and erected some of the biggest elevator roofs in the Midwest. Imagine figuring out how to raise a round roof to the top of an elevator by constructing a huge umbrella to lift and raise the roof from the inside. Phil did. But of course, Phil wasn't done inventing.
He looked at the commercial conveyors he was buying and installing in the elevators he was building and decided he could do better. Grain elevator explosions were a problem in the grain handling industry and conveyors were one of the chief causes, so he designed an enclosed belt grain conveyor that could move grain without creating the dust that caused the explosions. So it was that HiRoller Conveyors was born. His conveyor design was revolutionary in the industry and soon Cargill, ADM, and others were knocking at the door.
In 1982, Phil relocated HiRoller to Sioux Falls, South Dakota. He was named the 1998 South Dakota Exporter of the year, honored as the 1999 South Dakota Small Businessman of the Year and was awarded multiple patents for his life saving conveyor designs. HiRoller Conveyors are now sold worldwide. His greatest source of pride was that he accomplished all of this without an engineering degree.
Phil sold HiRoller in 2006. Instead of retiring like most folks do, that year he founded Skyblue Winds. He was not finished inventing. He had revolutionized the grain handling industry. He thought he could do the same for wind power generation. He set about designing a wind turbine unlike anything you see across the landscape. It would generate electricity at lower wind speeds and keep generating electricity at higher wind speeds. He applied for and was granted another patent. Sadly, his last design was left on the drawing board when ill health forced his retirement in 2011.
Phil was known by his family as "Big Phil" - just as much as for his big appetite and his big ideas as for his big heart. He was a father and mentor not only to his five children, but also to his countless nieces and nephews. He will be missed by too many to acknowledge here. and 11 grandchildren.
He was preceded in death by his parents and by his siblings Edith, Tim, and John.
Services will be held Monday, November 3, 2014 at 2:00 p.m. at the First Presbyterian Church, 2300 SW Avenue, Sioux Falls, SD. Memorials may be sent to Red Cloud Indian School, Pine Ridge, South Dakota or Sanford Gift of Time Hospice Campaign.