William Patrick Clark Jr. (October 23, 1931August 10, 2013) was an American rancher, judge, and public servant who served under President Ronald Reagan as the Deputy Secretary of State from 1981 to 1982, United States National Security Advisor from 1982 to 1983, and the Secretary of the Interior from 1983 to 1985. Early life and education Clark was born in Oxnard, California on October 23, 1931, the son of William Petit and Bernice Gregory Clark. Clark attended Villanova Preparatory School in Ojai. After completing high school, Clark went on to Stanford University and Loyola Law School while managing his ranch. Not being able to dedicate sufficient time and resources towards completing his undergraduate and postgraduate degrees, Clark never graduated from Stanford or Loyola. Nevertheless, he scored well enough on entrance exams to gain admittance to law school, and he passed the California state bar exam without a law school degree, after failing his first attempt at the California state bar exam. He also served in the U.S. Army Counter Intelligence Corps. Legal and government career California In the 1960s and 1970s, Clark held a series of public posts in state government. In September 1967, Clark became the Executive Secretary to Governor Ronald Reagan. Clark was a judge of the Superior Court of California from 1969 to 1971, in Paso Robles, San Luis Obispo County. On July 30, 1971, Governor Reagan elevated Clark to Associate Justice of the California Court of Appeal, Second District, Division One. In January 1973, Governor Reagan appointed Clark as an associate justice of the California State Supreme Court, where he served from March 23, 1973, until February 25, 1981. Washington, D.C. In 1980, Ronald Reagan won the election as President of the United States. Clark reached the apex of his power when Reagan appointed Clark as National Security Advisor, and he temporarily became preeminent among presidential aides. A longtime rancher friend of Reagan, according to Edmund Morris's Dutch, Clark would walk into Reagan's office unannounced, an unheard-of practice for even the most senior officials. Clark even suggested to the president in light of foreign policy troubles bedeviling the United States in the mid-1980s that Reagan considers not running for reelection in 1984. By that time, however, George Shultz had surpassed Clark in influence, and Reagan apparently gave Clark's suggestion no thought. Clark's biographers credit him with convincing Reagan that the Soviet Union could be pushed to