He spent his early years on a sheep farm in Tokonui, in eastern Southland, before the family moved to South Otago when he was about 4.
After attending "the mighty Clutha Valley Primary", in Clydevale, Clark, 54, and his younger brother attended Otago Boys’ High School as boarders — "great times", he quips.
He went on to spend a year at polytech, doing a certificate in tourism, though he had no real desire for a tourism career.
"I did it, basically, just to do something for a year, till I worked out what I wanted to do."
Subsequently, he had "numerous and varied jobs", including working at the freezing works — while employed there, he met his now-wife Rhonda, just before his 21st birthday.
He went on to sell advertising at the Otago Daily Times and then, in about 1992, he landed a job as a sales rep for Speight’s.
It was the beginning of a career he couldn’t have envisaged at the time.
Around 1997, Clark was transferred to Invercargill to look after the Southland Speight’s office.
There, he made an impact in more than just hospo circles.
A keen rugby player from his early days — starting out as an openside flanker before shifting to a hooker "when I got fat and slow" — Clark clearly had talent.
He’d played for the Otago XV, in 1995, the Otago 10s and 7s teams, and a preseason game for the Highlanders, in Queenstown, before he shifted south, where he went on to play 30-odd games for Southland, between 1997 and ’99.
"That was good fun," he says.
"It was good back then, because you could work and then just go to training in the late afternoon.
"It was just the start of professionalism, so you got given a wee bit of money for something you could do for free.
"I knew I was never going to make a career out of it, because I was too old when everything changed.
"It was just about having fun for me, with my mates."
Ignoring other lyrics from Southern Man, Clark and Rhonda did end up crossing the Strait, moving to Wellington to run the lower part of the North Island for Lion, where he played a bit of social footy, and the couple welcomed Gus, now 24, and Maggie, 22.
Maggie was only about a month old when the family moved to Arrowtown, after Clark had been given the opportunity to open Queenstown’s Speight’s Ale House with Mark and Kirstin Scully in September, 2002.
The Heritage New Zealand category 1-listed former Lake County Council building had been purchased a couple of years earlier by mayor and mayoress of the day, Warren and Lorraine Cooper.
For Clark, the chance to work for himself was too good of an opportunity to turn down, while Arrowtown had always been a second home.
"Rhonda’s dad’s always had a place in Arrowtown, so we’ve always holidayed here, right from when we first teamed up.
"If we were coming to the Whakatipu Basin, that’s where we were coming to live, because we knew Arrowtown, knew it well."
Here, thinking it’d be a good way to meet "a few local rascals", he decided to join the Wakatipu rugby team.
The couple welcomed Max in 2004, and Clark ended up putting his boots out to pasture in 2006, though his affiliation with the sport continued through till 2013, through the hugely-successful Pub Charity Sevens with Altitude tournament, held on the Queenstown Rec Ground.
Brought out of hibernation by founding chair Kelvin Collins, in 2004, Clark joined the organising committee in 2005, and took over as chairman in ’06, a role he held till Queenstown lost the rights to host it after the 2013 tourney.
"It’s the old story, when someone does something great, and it’s successful, someone else wants a part of it."
Queenstown ultimately lost a tender to continue hosting the tournament, which was moved to Rotorua, then to Tauranga.
It hasn’t been played since ’19.
In the intervening years, Clark’s been a fixture at Speight’s, navigating all the challenges Covid delivered, from being unable to open at all, to struggling to find staff.
That’s why a fire in the building 18 months ago, just as things seemed to be turning a corner, was so gutting.
The drawn-out rebuild process finally came to an end last Monday, when Speight’s officially reopened to the public.
It means Clark’s now back in his happy place, where he gets to spend his days "just yapping away to people".
"Even though the last 18 months I’ve not been doing nothing, you need a purpose.
"You wake up in the morning and it’s good, just knowing you’re coming to work, and hopefully have an enjoyable shift, chatting away to people, serving lovely beer with beautiful food."
While Gus and Maggie are now in Wellington and Max is studying in Dunedin, Clark and Rhonda, true to another line in Southern Man, have no plans to leave the Whakatipu.
"It’s been a great move for us, coming here, a great place to bring up your kids, and it’s going to be a great place to chill out for the rest of our lives."
