Remembering June Clark, lifelong adventurer, gifted illustrator and Ted’s copilot in every sense

June Elizabeth Clark (née Richtarik), 1937–2026

June Clark always had dog treats in her pocket. Not sometimes. Every day. If you were a dog and you crossed June’s path, you were getting a treat. If you were a stray, you were probably going home with her while she figured out who you belonged to. One turned out to belong to a family in Kansas. She found them. That’s the kind of person she was.

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June Elizabeth Clark died June 8, 2026, in National City, California. She was 88.

Born July 20, 1937, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, June grew up the daughter of Vencil “Rick” Richtarik, a Plymouth-DeSoto dealer who worked at Collins Radio during World War II, and Gladys Richtarik (née Swab), who did clerical work at a downtown business office. They lived by the railroad tracks, where she and friends would be found sweeping out boxcars and occasionally riding with the engineers on the switching engines. The family later moved to be near Roosevelt High School, where June was valedictorian. Her older sister, Joy Ramona, died at age five, two years before June was born. June’s asthma eventually pushed the family west to Boulder, Colorado, and Boulder is where her story really begins.

She graduated from the University of Colorado, where she served as managing editor of the 1959 Coloradan yearbook and spent summers at Peaceful Valley, high in the Rockies outside Boulder, leading a pack train of participants in a mountain climbing school to base camp and feeding them dinner on their return from the hills. Ted Clark, her future husband and the love of her life, first saw her during a water fight between his fraternity and her sorority — taken by her tactics when she jumped onto the back of a passing garbage truck to detach the Sig Eps’ hose, rendering them defenseless and leading the Chi Omegas to victory. They formally met at a Song Fest practice at the sorority house. When Ted’s red MG roadster blew its engine at his first sports car race in La Junta, he needed a tow. June drove a powder-blue 1953 Ford convertible and was more than handy with automobiles — her father had insisted she learn to change tires and handle basic repairs before she could have a car. She went to La Junta; the convertible had a hitch. It was the first of many times she towed a race car for him.

They married July 21, 1962, at First United Methodist Church in Boulder. For years afterward June traveled with Ted to races across the United States and Canada, serving as chief registrar of the SCCA (Sports Car Club of America) Colorado Region. A gifted illustrator and calligrapher, she painted Ted’s number, 56, on the cars herself and read the maps on the long drives to the tracks. She was his copilot in every sense.

June earned her master’s degree in textiles and clothing at Colorado State University in 1963 — her thesis: “Aspects of Hawaii as Inspiration for Modern Day Apparel for Women.” At the time, Ted served in the Army Reserve. She then began doctoral work and helped develop the textile lab at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Illinois, where she joined the faculty and their daughter, Robin, was born in 1966. She loved teaching undergraduates. They made great babysitters.

They moved back to Boulder to be close to Robin’s grandparents. June went to work at Holubar, later acquired by The North Face, and then Altra, both pioneers in the emerging sew-it-yourself mountaineering gear industry. Sleeping bags. Ski jackets. Backpacks. Tents. She designed the patterns, stitched the prototypes, and wrote the instructions. With a well-lived understanding of the home seamstresses of the day and a gift with words, she was never short of a dry aside hidden within, like “Now is the time to get out of your pajamas and go feed your kids.” She later spent 18 years at the University of Colorado Foundation researching alumni and potential donors, retiring in 2001.

She volunteered as assistant librarian at Majestic Heights Elementary — but really, she was keeping an eye on Robin and the other kids and reporting back to the parents on South 43rd Street. When she signed up as regional Girl Scout cookie mom, it became clear exactly what she had gotten into when a semi-truck packed with pallets of cookies backed up to the house. She sewed doll clothes deep into the night with the other girl moms on the block. She and her friends formed the Tacky Bakers, decorating cakes with wildflowers and bright colors for weddings at a time when yellow cake with white frosting was considered the norm.

Her culinary exploration was ahead of its time. She made sushi and Caesar salad with raw egg at home in the 1970s, challenging Ted and Robin’s less sophisticated palates. Ted always said her potato salad was the best he’d ever had. Her pies — apple, peach, and lemon chiffon — were the kind people requested by name.

Around 1970, June read an article in Sunset magazine about whitewater rafting and put a question in that year’s Christmas card: Does anyone want to come along? Forty friends and family members said yes. They ran the Yampa and Green rivers, and it was the start of decades of whitewater adventures.

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When Robin was a pre-teen, Ted and June bought land in Hahns Peak Village, a spectacular alpine escape 25 miles north of Steamboat Springs, and built a cedar wood cabin from the ground up, facing Hahns Peak. For four decades they spent weeks and countless weekends there, making lifelong friends with the neighbors who shared the joy of river rafting.

A white-knuckle flight over the Flatirons for the college yearbook persuaded June to give up on airplanes for good, so she and Ted saw the world by cruise ship, camper, and train. They crossed the country more than once and sailed to Hawaii, Alaska, Mexico, Canada, New England, and South America. June loved being on a big ship, especially watching the goings-on in port — the vendors and hawkers, the crew, the ropes and cranes. She was fascinated by the organized chaos of it all.

Devoted Buffs, Ted and June held CU season football tickets at Folsom Field for 38 years and later added men’s and women’s basketball. She loved sports and giving advice to student athletes, sometimes in the elevator right before a game.

June loved dogs. The family’s pets also included Sparky the parakeet, the occasional kindergarten guinea pig, and dogs Tickey, Chuk, Emma, and Rose. She was also the only one willing to cut up grubs for the neighbors’ reptiles when they went out of town.

Her compassion ran wide. She talked to everybody — on cruise ships, in grocery lines, at the edge of someone else’s conversation. June made it her mission to remember every birthday and important occasion in her circle of family and friends. She curated an impressive greeting card collection, addressed them in perfect penmanship, and made sure they always arrived on the designated day. She was brilliant but wore it lightly, her real gift a genuine curiosity about other people. She listened. She remembered. Her empathy showed up in action rather than announcement. She was a perfectionist who usually got there, and a proofreader who never stopped wincing at typos in the Boulder Daily Camera. She said more than once they really ought to hire her as editor.

Most evenings, she and Ted sat on the porch of the house on Westview Drive or the deck at the cabin, watching the sun set behind the Flatirons or Hahns Peak with a cocktail. They called it saluting the sun. They treasured watching the alpenglow move across the peaks until the light was gone.

June was preceded in death by her parents and her sister, Joy. She is survived by her husband of nearly 64 years, Ted Clark, of Hahns Peak Village and San Diego; and her daughter and son-in-law, Robin and Onell Soto, of San Diego.

A memorial service will be held at 1 p.m. on July 18, 2026, at First United Methodist Church, 1421 Spruce St., Boulder, CO 80302 — the same church where June and Ted were married 64 years ago.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to the Humane Society of Boulder Valley (boulderhumane.org) or the Alzheimer’s Association Colorado Chapter (alz.org/co).

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