Bob and Betty Clark’s influence on local tennis continues to this day

Bob and Betty Clark moved here 50 years ago. Hawaii tennis has never been the same.

Both turn 79 in this unimaginable year. They celebrated their 53rd anniversary last month. Their story somehow ties together Hawaii trivia like tuxedos at Michel’s and Bobby McGee’s Conglomeration Ceramic Toilet Bowl mug steins, and includes gallons of Quikrete.

It is a wide-ranging and active epic that cannot be told without tennis.

After meeting on a cruise ship and marrying in England, the Clarks came to Hawaii in 1969. They moved to Hawaii Kai a little later, and after a back operation, Bob was compelled to give up soccer.

“I wanted to do something, so my wife and I went down to the Koko Head Courts early in the morning and just hit the ball,” Bob recalls. “People who wanted to play would know to sit behind us because in 20 minutes we would be gone.”

But 20 minutes soon multiplied exponentially. After “maybe a year” the Clarks pretty much knew everyone at the courts.

Bob also knew every inch of the courts. He started making minor fixes, traveling with a bucket of Quik­rete patcher in his trunk to fill small cracks, sometimes daily.

He created a Wednesday “fun league for mainly housewives” whose kids were in school. Betty and about 70 others played in the league for a decade. There were A, B and C divisions to keep it even, and all teams got trophies.

Last place collected that immortal Bobby McGee’s Conglomeration Ceramic Toilet Bowl mug stein, which still brings back head-shaking memories of late nights at the popular Waikiki restaurant/club back in the day.

The Clarks still have friends from that era. Most of the players eventually moved on to USTA Hawaii Pacific League Tennis. Betty captained league tennis teams for some 25 years and also got involved in a coed soccer league at Ala Wai.

“She has unbelievable energy,” says Maddie Dreith, USTA Hawaii’s director of community tennis, “and loves her junk food.”

Early on, Bob bought a tuxedo so he could work at Michel’s beachfront restaurant — for 38 years, the last eight as maitre d’. And he hunkered down at the Koko Head courts, sometimes literally while tenaciously trying to keep them in good shape.

“It was never a great surface there,” Bob says. “During our first fun league, all but a couple courts had cracks. I’d get a couple guys and some Quikrete, and we’d be on our knees filling in the cracks. We did that for quite a long time until they resurfaced.”

He and his tennis friends, including some of his buddies from Michel’s, still go to Koko Head every morning to play doubles when the courts are not closed. There is no set time, but about a dozen players — most now “60-plus” — arrive between 8-9 a.m. and usually crank out at least three sets.

“Bob gets there before everyone else to take care of the rubbish around the court or fix a net or repair a windscreen,” Dreith says. “He greets everyone that comes through the southeast gate. It’s drop-in tennis.

“If you’re new to the courts, he’ll match you up with other players to make the game fair and fun. He is the peacemaker when the hotheads drop in. And he’ll poke fun at you with charm and affection.”

Bob also played league tennis and organized other leagues and tournaments. He and Betty volunteer often but rarely play together — with one notable exception: They won the silver medal in 70-74 mixed doubles at the 2015 National Senior Games in Minnesota.

It remains Bob’s greatest tennis memory, in a tennis life he and Betty will remember much more for the people, not the points.

This year his knee operation and the pandemic shutdowns have had a major impact. Not surprisingly, the Clarks have found ways to remain engaged.

Bob finally has time to work on his garden. It now has flowers on one side and vegetables and herbs on the other, or, as he says, “a little of everything.” He goes walking “where it’s legal” — often picking up cans and bottles off the ground — and also gets on the stationary bike three times a day to rehab his knee.

Betty, who added pickleball to her athletic plate before the pandemic hit, is blowing through the “couple hundred paperbacks” she wants to purge from their home.

During shutdowns they see their tennis buddies only “when they jog by,” Bob says. They take what they can get, off and on the court. That still includes constant improvements at Koko Head.

Years ago the USTA supplied windscreens that Bob and his friends put up. When those wore out they had a fundraiser to get new ones. They also replace nets and put up shades, along with filling all those pesky cracks.

“If we had a Bob Clark at every major public park tennis site, we would be in a near-perfect world,” Dreith says. “He takes care of the facility as if it was his own home.”

It kind of is, after all these years.

“We’ve had some fun down there,” Bob says. “At our ages now a couple people are gone, but we’ve still got a few old ones.”