Josepha O. Clark, librarian

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Josepha O'Callaghan “Josie” Clark, formerly of Chestnut Hill, a retired school librarian, died July 17 of congestive heart failure at the Artman Lutheran Home in Ambler. She had been a resident of Stapeley in Germantown for the past seven years.

Mrs. Clark, retired in 1988 after serving for nearly two decades as the Upper School librarian at Abington Friends School. Abington's Class of 1974 dedicated its yearbook to her.

Mrs. Clark's daughter Conna Clark, of East Mt. Airy, described her mother as “a woman with a great sense of humor and respect for young minds and hearts willing to learn.”

“She laughed with and shushed students in equal measure,” her daughter said.

Born in Manhattan to Irish immigrants, Mrs. Clark was raised in Queens and the Bronx. She received a bachelor's degree in English literature from Hunter College and a master's degree in library science from Drexel University.

She enjoyed traveling, the theater, gardening and cooking. Among her greatest pleasures, according to her daughter, was beachcombing, “first with one generation, then the next.”

In addition to her daughter, she is survived by sons Brendan, Patrick and Ciaran, all of Erdenheim, and Brian, of Stowe, Mass.; sisters Patricia Friedman, of Rancho Bernardo, Calif., and Joan Flaherty, of Williamsburg, Va.; a brother Sean O'Callaghan, of Ardmore; 10 grandchildren and one great-grandchild. Mrs. Clark's husband, Dennis Clark, and a daughter, Brigid, preceded her in death.

A celebration of her life will be held Oct. 3 – WF

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