Leslie (“Lester”) Allan Clark died suddenly on April 15, 2023. He was 68.
He was a most kind and humble man. And funny.
“Who’s next?” Lester would say. The honour system worked at Lester’s Barber Shop, a Beechwood Road institution. Besides a shave and a haircut, patrons found up-to-date newspapers and magazines, a shop-window set-up of trains and tracks for the little fellas, and a bench outside where a customer or a passerby or a neighbourhood pooch could take a pause. (Lester left Milkbone treats there for the four-legged friends. Sometimes, one would gratefully leave him a stick.) And the conversation was friendly and alive. There was a big hole on Beechwood when fire hit Lester’s building in 2011, but his service didn’t end there, nor was it limited to the free (or ridiculously cheap) haircuts he offered, notably to gents in palliative or hospital care. Lester Clark didn’t create this – the statement is Muhammad Ali’s – but he lived it thoroughly: “Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth." There’s a big hole in all the places that he loved and served.
Leslie Allan Clark was born in Timmins, Ontario on June 23, 1954. He is pre-deceased by his mother Colleen Farmer and father Malcolm Clark, and survived by his wife Shabnam Mohammad-Hosseini, his sister Maxine (Bob McLaughlin), his brother Malcolm (Cathy Hogan), as well as Patrick McLaughlin, Trevor McLaughlin, Tammy McDonald, Paul McLaughlin, Darren Hogan, Claudette Clark, Darryl Brown and Debbie Brown. Much of his family remains in northern Ontario, but Lester, as he preferred to be called, was making his way in southern Ontario by his teens, first in Toronto (where he trained as a barber) and then in Ottawa. He took over “Jimmy’s Barber Shop” in 1979, and directed that community hub for 32 years. He married young with Claudette Clark, and remained a loyal step-dad to her two children. Alongside his family and professional pursuits, Lester enjoyed driving and car talk, going fishing, playing tennis, indulging his sweet teeth and making people laugh. He was an inveterate joker, often at his own expense and always with the intent of increasing general happiness.
As the 21st century was dawning, Lester met a member of the Baha’i community who worked a few doors down on Beechwood Avenue. He was captivated by its teachings of global oneness, equality and spiritual fulfillment, and eagerly attended an informal “fireside” gathering in an Ottawa home. Lester was often heard to say, “Ever since that first fireside, I feel like I fell into a bed of roses!” Enthusiastic and generous in sharing his good fortune, he served the community as a member of several committees, including one that conducted public firesides in the Baha’i Centre. Of special note, he gave wonderful support to refugee Baha’i students who had been barred from Iran’s universities. After graduating from the Baha’i Institute of Higher Education (an underground network of tutorial education in Iran), many students found open doors in Ottawa for graduate training. Never having attended university himself, Lester loved assisting the BIHE students in their transition to Canadian life, providing rides to local sites of interest (and to the Baha’i House of Worship in Chicago!), turkey dinners on Thanksgiving, and even the chance for a few hardy students to go ice-fishing! Shabnam Mohammad-Hosseini was among the students he welcomed. She says, “When he was with the BIHE students, he was absolutely happy. He was at his best.”
Shabnam, who had come to Canada in 2004 to do Master’s work in Psychology, and Lester the Barber, together found something beyond their schooling and service. They were married in 2006 in India, where Lester had earlier been absolutely delighted to serve for three months as a volunteer greeter and guide at the famous “Lotus Temple”, the Baha’i House of Worship in Delhi, while barbering on the side. Visa problems thwarted their hopes of making their married way abroad, which has allowed their friends in Ottawa to enjoy and benefit from their friendship and shared service.
The 2011 fire that took Lester’s business was followed by several years of barbering at the Perley and Rideau Veterans’ Health Centre. As a friend insisted, “He chose to work there, even though it wasn’t much money. He wanted to offer real service.” And he did, until the pandemic made that work impossible, and a slight hand tremor also began to limit his voluntary grooming efforts at the homes or residences of elderly men. For the last few years, both Shabnam and Lester have been Commissionaires, doing security work in federal government buildings, and his sudden passing occurred just after a work shift. He served until the end.
“Lester” Allan Clark died on Saturday, April 15, 2023, and was buried in the Baha’i Gardens at Capital Cemetery, 3700 Prince of Wales Drive, on Thursday April 20. Lester’s kindness, nobility and good humour were lovingly remembered at the Ottawa Baha’i Centre that afternoon, and will continue to be whenever his friends gather.