Virginia, Illinois, Arizona and Minnesota; The Story of Tarryl Clark

Today we examine the life of Stearns County Commissioner Tarryl Clark.  She was born in Norfolk, Virginia where he dad was serving in the Navy.  Tarryl is the oldest of 4 children, she has 3 younger brothers.  Clark lived her first 2 1/2 years in Virginia before the family moved to Glenview, Illinois, which was close to her mom's family.  Growing up in Illinois Tarryl recalls church, family and community being the top focuses for her.  She was very close to her maternal grandmother.  Clark lived in Illinois for 8 1/2 years before the family moved again to Arizona.

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Tarryl was in 6th grade when the family moved to Arizona.  She said she wasn't happy about this move because she was leaving all of what she knew.  The family relocated to suburban northeast Phoenix.  Clark says she really enjoyed the sunrises and sunsets that Arizona provided.  She became interested in sewing at a young age due to the influence of her grandmother.  Clark won a 4-H blue ribbon at the Arizona State Fair as a kid for sewing.  Other interests as a kid for Clark included being active in her church and dancing.  She also held many part-time jobs including working for a local 5 and dime and as a high schooler she worked with H&R Block working on tax preparation.

Clark made many life long friends in Arizona including her husband.   He was a basketball player and track athlete and Tarryl was a basketball statistician.  After high school she attended Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa where she graduated with a degree in Sociology with a 2nd degree in Psychology.  Her husband, Doug ran track and cross country at St. John's University in Collegeville at this time where he was an All American steeplechaser.  At that time her and her husband weren't dating but were good friends.  The two did begin dating and relocated to Arizona where they were married and she attended graduate school while Doug went to law school at Arizona State.  The two had their 2 sons, Collin and Nathan in Arizona.  After Doug graduated from law school due to a lack of jobs in his field the two chose to relocate to Minnesota where he got a job in St. Cloud.

Tarryl had worked for the county they lived in in Arizona being an advocate for homeless teens and then for pregnant teens.  When Tarryl arrived in Minnesota she was hired to work for Habitat for Humanity and she also worked with the Girl Scouts Council.  Because she wanted to get involved with policy change she went to law school when her kids were young.  After law school she worked for legal aid working for the children defense fund before running the Minnesota Statewide Community Action Partnership.  She did that for 8 years and learned what worked and what didn't work in Government.  This position allowed her to get to know many people at the legislature and she says she developed good relationships with both Republicans and Democrats.

In 2000 Tarryl Clark first ran for office but didn't get elected.  She ran again in 2005 and won a special election to succeed Dave Kleis for Senate District 15.  Kleis had just won the election to become the Mayor of St. Cloud.  She served in that role from 2006 to 2011.  In 2011, Clark sought the Democratic nomination to challenge Republican congressman Chip Cravaack in Minnesota's 8th congressional district but lost the endorsement to Rick Nolan who went on to win the August 2012 primary.

Clark was out of politics for awhile and chose to do some work on higher education administration and worked on some energy efficiency projects.  In 2018 she decided to run for an open Stearns County Commissioner position and won.  She loves the Stearns County Commissioner role and what she can do for the county.  Clark also has become an avid quilter and enjoys spending time with her 3 granddaughters.

If you'd like to listen to my conversation with Tarryl Clark it is available below.