Mariann Louise Clark
Mariann Clark spent the first third of her 64-year career at Iowa Methodist Medical Center nursing polio victims in iron lungs and assisting during Iowa’s first pediatric open-heart surgery in 1957. For the past four decades, she helped recruit key medical personnel and organized events for Iowa Health Systems.
Mariann graduated from Marshalltown High School in 1947 and the Iowa Methodist School of Nursing in 1950. As a student nurse in 1948, she met Bob Clark, a patient in the orthopedic ward who had broken his collarbone while playing halfback on Drake University’s football team. They were married June 5, 1951, and had three children: Deborah, Heidi and Brian. Bob’s career as a lawyer took the family to Tulsa, Washington, D.C., and Birmingham, England during the 1960s. When they returned to Des Moines in 1968, Mariann resumed her nursing career in the emergency room at Methodist Hospital. A decade later, David Ramsey, chief executive of Methodist’s parent company, Iowa Health Systems, asked Mariann to help recruit nurses, making her the first nurse recruiter in Iowa. Before long, she was also recruiting doctors and other medical technicians for the statewide hospital network now known as UnityPoint Health. When she retired in 2016, a plaque was placed outside her office in the Methodist Medical Complex reserving the space for her whenever she could stop by.
Mariann died March 15, 2022. She is survived by her husband, Robert Clark; daughters, Deborah (Stanley) Stewart and Heidi (Bill) Owens; son, Brian Clark; and many other family and friends. Services were held March 20 at Hamilton’s on Westown Parkway.
Mariann graduated from Marshalltown High School in 1947 and the Iowa Methodist School of Nursing in 1950. As a student nurse in 1948, she met Bob Clark, a patient in the orthopedic ward who had broken his collarbone while playing halfback on Drake University’s football team. They were married June 5, 1951, and had three children: Deborah, Heidi and Brian. Bob’s career as a lawyer took the family to Tulsa, Washington, D.C., and Birmingham, England during the 1960s. When they returned to Des Moines in 1968, Mariann resumed her nursing career in the emergency room at Methodist Hospital. A decade later, David Ramsey, chief executive of Methodist’s parent company, Iowa Health Systems, asked Mariann to help recruit nurses, making her the first nurse recruiter in Iowa. Before long, she was also recruiting doctors and other medical technicians for the statewide hospital network now known as UnityPoint Health. When she retired in 2016, a plaque was placed outside her office in the Methodist Medical Complex reserving the space for her whenever she could stop by.
Mariann died March 15, 2022. She is survived by her husband, Robert Clark; daughters, Deborah (Stanley) Stewart and Heidi (Bill) Owens; son, Brian Clark; and many other family and friends. Services were held March 20 at Hamilton’s on Westown Parkway.
