Published: October 05, 2009 11:17 pm      

Late Ridgeley man achieved much despite loss of legs as child

RIDGELEY, W.Va. — A class picture taken in front of the Hill School on Knobley Mountain in Ridgeley shows a legless boy in the front row sitting on a wooden box next to another student. This was the Hill School’s sixth-grade class of 1919, and the two boys were Alan Clark and his brother Forest. There are people still living in the Cumberland and Ridgeley area who remember seeing this legless youth navigating the streets using his arms to get around.

Alan Clark was the fifth of 12 children born to William and Elsie Clark of Ridgeley. Alan was born July 4, 1907, in Ridgeley. The family lived at 135 Main St. and, as with many homes in the town, the Clark family’s back ard bordered the Western Maryland Railway property. Only a few feet separated the play area for the children from the nearest railroad tracks. When he was 5 years old, Alan was playing under a coal car when it unexpectedly moved and Alan lost both his legs.

This accident may have resulted in the end of a productive life for many children, but not Alan. He was quickly equipped with a leather boot, which he wore under his torso, and learned to walk using his hands. He always wore railroad gloves with leather inserts. Alan attended the Hill School in Ridgeley just below the family home on Knobley Mountain until he graduated from the eighth grade at age 14. As with other Ridgeley students of the era, in order to further his education he was required to attend Allegany High School in Cumberland.

When Alan graduated from Allegany with the class of 1925, the audience was awed by the scene of the new graduate making his way across the stage on his hands to receive his diploma. C.L. Kopp, Allegany’s principal, stated that in Alan’s four years of high school life at Allegany, he had not been absent or tardy a single day. According to Kopp, in that period Alan had, by the aid of his hands, traveled 2,268 miles to and from school.

Alan never considered himself disabled. He swam, played football and drove a specially equipped car. After high school, he went on to marry and to graduate from George Washington University in the District of Columbia and became a lawyer.

He worked in Washington, D.C., for the Interior Department and attended all his Allegany High School reunions. Alan died in 1990 at the age of 83.

His younger brother, Fred “Tack” Clark, was a longtime football coach at Keyser High School. Alan’s only surviving sibling is Agnes Comer, a resident of LaVale.

Gary Clites is the author of “Ridgeley and Carpendale, West Virginia from 1750: A History.” He is currently working on a photographic history of the two towns. Anyone with photos can contact him at (304) 738-7017.