By Jo Mathis
Legal News
When she was a student at Lumen Christi High School, Patti Clark’s mother insisted she take a block of secretarial courses. Clark was not amused. “I fought it tooth and nail. I said, `No way, I don’t want to be a secretary!’” said Clark, 59. “I was in high school. I thought I wanted to work at Ganto’s. I wanted to do something fun! I knew I didn’t want to be a secretary and sit in an office!”
But Clark did as her mother suggested. And now that she’s been a secretary for 40 years — and happily so — she realizes her mother was right all along.
“I’ve been very fortunate to work with some great people,” said Clark, a judicial secretary for the Jackson County Circuit Court. After high school, she worked as a secretary for Acme Court Reporters (now Acro Court Reporters), and then moved with her then-husband to Big Rapids when he was studying to be a court reporter at Ferris State University. Following a divorce, she returned to Jackson and worked for attorney Terry Klaasen for 14 years.
She married husband, Roy Clark, in 1988, and moved to Lansing, where she worked for two attorneys for two years. Then it was back to Jackson, where she worked for attorney Tom Sullivan for 14 years until he retired, and then for a financial advisor for a year until 2001, when the market took a turn after 9/11 and she was out of a job.
Ten years ago, Clark became a judicial secretary at the courthouse working for her former classmate, Judge Chad Schmucker, who is now president of the National Judicial College in Reno, Nevada.
For the last three years, Clark has been the judicial secretary for Chief Circuit Judge Thomas Wilson, and is one of three secretaries for Circuit Judge Richard LaFlamme, handling civil matters.
Law is an interesting field.
“There is never a dull moment around here,” she said. “I had never worked for a criminal attorney. I worked for attorneys who did worker's comp, Social Security, real estate, and divorces. I had never real ly been around the criminal side of the law until I came here, so that was eye-opening.
“The hardest part is seeing some of the situations people get themselves into. Sometimes I feel very bad for them. Sometimes I shake my head and wonder, `What were you thinking?’ And families that come in here with kids in trouble ? as a mom and a grandma, I feel for the moms.”
Four years ago, Clark lost her 29-year-old stepson, Christopher, to a viral infection that took his life within a matter of weeks. Christopher was her husband’s only child.
Clark’s only child, Donnie, is a married father of two young children, who lives in Columbus, Ohio.
She tries to see them every couple of months. The rest of the time, it's phone, texts, Facebook, and e-mail.
Her husband was a mortgage banker who became disillusioned with the industry during the mortgage crisis of 2009, and since then, he has turned his hobby into his livelihood. From April to November, he works as a landscaper and gardener in Charlevoix, staying with a friend, and taking care of about 10 properties.
His new job has been a way to help heal following his son's sudden death, she said.
She’s excited about the new digital imaging technology coming to the courthouse soon that will make her job easier.
“Instead of having to run downstairs to look at a document, we’ll be able to call it up on our screens,” she said. “It’s a step towards paperless.”
They live in a subdivision just east of Jackson’s city limits, in a house with a back yard that’s been transformed into one large flower garden, complete with a relaxing waterfall.
Her hobbies are reading, karaoke, and "spoiling grandbabies.”
Although her dream job now would be a criminal profiler —something she hadn’t even known about years ago—she's happy with the career path she chose.
“I've worked for great attorneys, and in great offices with great gals,” she said. “I've been lucky.”
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