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Concept
Clark V. Poling
Summary
Clark Vandersall Poling (August 7, 1910 – February 3, 1943) was a minister in the Reformed Church in America and a lieutenant in the United States Army. He was one of the Four Chaplains who gave their lives to save other soldiers during the sinking of the troop transport during World War II.
Poling was born in Columbus, Ohio, to Dr. Daniel Alfred Poling (1884–1968), an Evangelical minister, and Susan Jane Vandersall (1882–1918). He was raised in Auburndale, Massachusetts, where he attended Whitney Public School. He had three siblings, Daniel, Mary and Elizabeth. His mother died in 1918; his father remarried in 1919 and converted to the Baptist faith, becoming an ordained minister. The family moved to Poughkeepsie, New York, and Poling attended Oakwood School where he excelled on the football team.
After graduation he attended Hope College in Michigan and then Rutgers University in New Jersey, graduating in 1933. He then attended Yale Divinity School, graduating in 1936. He then took up a position as pastor of the First Reformed Church in Schenectady, New York, where he settled with his wife Elizabeth Jung and their son Clark, Jr. ("Corky"). A daughter, Susan Elizabeth, was born three months after his death.
At the outbreak of war in 1941, Poling immediately volunteered for service as an Army chaplain in the footsteps of his father, who had served as a chaplain during World War I. He initially served in Mississippi with a transport regiment.
In late 1942, Poling was transferred to Camp Myles Standish in Taunton, Massachusetts, and attended Chaplains School at Harvard University. There he met fellow chaplains George L. Fox, Alexander D. Goode and John P. Washington.
In January 1943, the chaplains embarked on board the Dorchester, which was transporting over 900 soldiers to the United Kingdom via Greenland.
On February 2, 1943, the German submarine U-223 spotted the convoy on the move and closed with the ships, firing a torpedo which struck the Dorchester shortly after midnight.
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