Former Portland Mayor Bud Clark Dies at 90

The mustachioed publican led Portland into a new era.

Former Mayor Bud Clark. (WW archive)
By Nigel Jaquiss

Former Portland Mayor John Elwood “Bud” Clark, Jr., a publican turned politician who personified this city’s iconoclastic streak, died Feb. 1 at age 90. KATU reported Clark died from congestive heart failure, according to his daughter.

Clark and his wife, Sigrid, opened the Goose Hollow Inn in Southwest Portland in 1967.

Known for his handlebar mustache and a 1978 poster in which Clark opened his trench coat to “expose himself to art,” Clark ran a longshot campaign for mayor in 1984.

He shocked the city and incumbent Frank Ivancie, the last bastion of the city’s conservative past, winning outright in the May primary. Clark, a first-time candidate, creditably served two terms, leading the development of the Oregon Convention Center and implementing community policing.

When his tenure ended, he returned to Goose Hollow Inn, which his family still owns and operates. He was an enthusiastic cyclist, raconteur and, above all, a staunch supporter of Portland who enlivened conversations with his verbal signature, “Whoop, whoop!”

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