Sportscaster Clark Booth dies
Legendary journalist left mark on local news
‘You never were afraid to hand him anything — he’d produce the best piece you’ve ever seen.’ — FRANK SHORR, former colleague of Clark Booth
Clark Booth, a legendary sportscaster for Channel 5, died yesterday. He was 79.
He was born in Boston and had lived in Weymouth and Reading.
Booth spent most of his reporting career in Boston, where he began in newspapers before moving to television news and occasionally radio until retirement from full-time work in 2000.
He remained active in the freelance field as a print columnist and writer/narrator for an international documentary team.
Booth started at The Patriot Ledger and three years later was recruited by WBZ, where he stayed for 10 years.
He then moved to WCVB-TV where he became the station’s first special correspondent and remained there for 25 years.
“He was an incredible storyteller and an incredibly wellrounded guy,” said former colleague Frank Shorr, a former news producer at WCVB and former instructor at Boston University. “He was the gold standard in reporting and was so well read.”
Shorr, a retired senior lecturer emeritus, recalled his first few days on the job at WCVB-TV and how Booth was covering one of the most consequential games in Boston Bruins history — a Stanley Cup playoff game in the 1970s.
“Clark was sent up there to Canada to cover the story ... and Clark stayed in Montreal to cover the end of the season story so he shipped his material back to Boston,” Shorr said. “It was the lead story everybody was talking about in news and in sports and what Clark sent me was 7 minutes and 30 seconds — I either had to edit Clark Booth’s material, which would have been my last day of employment, or go up to the news director and say we have a problem.
“Clark and (news director) Jim Thistle were the best of friends ... and (Thistle) looks up at me and says, ‘Go with it’ ... without question. Clark had everyone spellbound,” Shorr said. “You never were afraid to hand him anything — he’d produce the best piece you’ve ever seen.”
The Pilot editor Antonio M. Enrique said in a statement that he and his staff are saddened and shocked to learn about the death of Booth, calling him “a man of great Catholic faith, a loving husband and father, and an icon of Boston sports journalism.”
“We are blessed that for more than four decades Clark shared his deep insights into the world of sports with readers of The Pilot,” Enrique said in a statement. “Since his weekly column began in 1975, his unique writing style and quick wit made him a perennial favorite with our readers . ... We offer our deepest condolences to his cherished wife Anne, his family, friends and all who came to know him through his decades of exceptional journalism.”