Transpacific balloonist Clark dies

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - Ron Clark, who helped pilot the Double Eagle V in the first balloon flight across the Pacific Ocean, died this week in Albuquerque. He was 69.

Ronald Brock Clark was a contractor and home and apartment building who became a successful real estate investor and developer, according to an obituary published on the website of French Mortuary . He also was instrumental in opening the Anderson-Abruzzo Albuquerque International Balloon Museum.

He is survived by a brother and his wife, two sons and a daughter and eight grandchildren. A visitation is scheduled at the French Wyoming Chapel from 5-8 p.m. today with funeral services planned for 1 p.m. Friday at Calvary of Albuquerque, 4001 Osuna Rd. NE.

In November 1981, Clark, Ben Abruzzo and Larry Newman , all of Albuquerque, and Rocky Aoki of Miami launched the Double Eagle V from Japan landing the gas balloon 84 hours later in the Mendocino National Forest in California. Abruzzo and Newman already were famous for the first transatlantic crossing they made in 1978 with copilot Maxie Anderson in the Double Eagle II.

Abruzzo, his wife and two other couples en route to a ski vacation died in 1985 when their plane crashed shortly after takeoff in Albuquerque. Aoki, founder of the Benihana Restaurant chain, died in 2008. Anderson died in a balloon crash in Germany in 1983.