Due to his love for students, fellow staff members and community the late Dr. Jon Clark, in turn, is beloved in Webster Groves, Mo.

And while he was a teacher/coach in the St. James School System more than three decades ago, Clark displayed many of the same qualities in this community that made him cherished there.

A loving daughter shared her thoughts on her father, Jon Clark, and his impact on school and community while fighting for his life with a book that was released this week.

The book on Jon Clark is entitled “The Parts That Stay, a memoir,” and it was released Sunday, Father’s Day. The book is available to purchase for $22.99 through Amazon.

Jenna Clark wrote the book on her father. It was co-authored and edited by her cousin, Arjun Kumar.

Using many stories about her father as a principal, family man and “ice cream connoisseur,” Jenna Clark explores in the book her father’s life story, with a specific focus on how he beat the long odds of brain cancer for more than 19 years and built a life for himself and his family. He passed away from the cancer Oct. 11, 2025 at the age of 59.

Jon was born in 1966 at Easton, Mo., a community outside of St. Joseph. An outstanding athlete, he attended St. Joseph Lafayette High School, and in basketball was coached by his father, Mel Clark.

He went on to play basketball collegiately for Northwest Missouri State in Maryville, Mo. His sister, Janet, was also an outstanding basketball player who was the first high school Miss Show-Me Basketball Award winner in 1985 who also played at Northwest Missouri State, where she became the school’s career scoring leader.

“People would joke with my dad about Janet being a better player than he was,” Jenna said. “Janet’s number was retired by Northwest. Both my dad and Janet wore No. 20 in college, so my dad would just tell people his number was retired too!”

After being a graduate assistant at Northwest Missouri, Jon’s first coaching job out of college was at St. James. And although he was there only two school years, the St. James school and community made a major impact on the direction of Jon’s life.

“St. James was the first place that gave him an opportunity to start his teaching and coaching career,” Jenna said. “It taught him how to build a program, because he took over a team that wasn’t really good. And he kept friends at St. James and talked about how special the town was to him. He always told the stories about whenever Rolla played St. James, about how it was a really big deal. St. James treated him so well and he loved his time and the people there.”

Jon Clark left St. James to become a teacher and boys’ basketball head coach at Rolla High School, where he was from 1991-96. And he was as well-received in Rolla as he was in St. James, making lifelong friends from students he coached as well as fellow staff members. And Rolla is also where he met the love of his life, his future wife Vinisha.

He left Phelps County when he was hired as Webster Groves High School Assistant Principal. He served as assistant principal until being elevated to Webster Grove High School Principal, a position he held from 2003-2018.

“I was the pep club sponsor when Jon was coach here,” said Barb Smith, a longtime faculty member and community leader in St. James. “He was such a wonderful young man and kids responded well to him. He didn’t coach our son (Ben Smith) - Jon left for Rolla when Ben was a freshman. But Jon went with us to many events just to see Ben play things like football and little league baseball.

“The year he left St. James and went to Rolla, we had a massive pep rally at St. James - only because of Jon. Of course, St. James has a big rivalry with Rolla, but because it was Jon it was even bigger and louder! But Jon had such a great sense of humor he didn’t mind it at all. The kids at St. James loved him and were happy for him. He took it with such grace.”

Barb’s husband, Bob Smith, worked with Clark at St. James Junior High School and grew to have a close personal friendship with him.

“I was his boss!” Bob said. “I was junior high principal when Jon was a math teacher there. He was a genuinely nice man and kids absolutely loved him.

“And he was a great math teacher; he worked with a lot of different kids outside of the classroom. He always made extra time to help kids.”

He only built on the closeness to students and colleagues as an administrator in Webster Groves.

“He was a leader throughout his life, but more so when he was a principal, with some unconventional leadership techniques,” Jenna said. “My favorite story was when a kid didn’t think he needed to be in school all week and got a mid-week suspension. My dad told the kid at a school assembly that if the kid shot a basketball and made it, he would cut the suspension from three days to one. The kid said no, it should be the other way around. So my dad, with a coffee in one hand, out-of-bounds behind the basket over three-point range, took the ball and swished it with one hand!

“He was always active. He went to all of the school activities. He ate lunch with the students. He wasn’t going to say no to anyone if they were passionate about something.”

However, life took a horrible turn when in 2006 - while Jenna was still a toddler - Jon was diagnosed with brain cancer.

“They told him it was an 80 percent chance he wouldn’t survive 2006,” Jenna said.

Immediately, Jon Clark’s love for family, community and life, shown through.

“They didn’t know if he would survive (his first open brain) surgery, which was on a Thursday,” Jenna said. “He was back at work the following Monday. That was my dad.”

And he stayed at work until finally leaving Webster Groves in 2018.

Later, the cancer became even more aggressive.

“ My dad’s health started to decline in 2025,” Jenna said. “I always told people about his story. I came home one weekend and told him I was going to write a book about him. He didn’t want to do it; didn’t think anyone would care. But every day when he was in hospice we would meet with coffee in the morning. I took a semester off (at Maryville University, where she had been a student-athlete in golf) to just process it.”

She graduated from Maryville a year early with a degree in engineering then would eventually follow in her dad’s footsteps as a high school coach.

And despite the knowledge of the ultimate fate, Jenna said the days along with her mother and brother surrounding her father during his time in hospice were among her most enjoyable.

Jon Clark may have left Webster Groves High School, but his name did not. The current Webster Groves High School girls’ basketball head coach is Jenna Clark, and the baseball head coach is Jon’s son and Jenna’s brother, Jacob.

Their hope is to leave a similar mark on the school and community as their father did.