Nathan Ford Clark, the oldest child of Nathan George Clark and Esther Lauretta Ford, was born in Centerville, Davis County, Utah on May 31, 1899. He lived, during his early life, in a large rock house located in the east part of Farmington, Utah. At the age of six, he started school in what was then called the Old Academy, a large red brick building located in the West part of town where the home of William Rogers now stands. After Christmas, when he was in the eighth grade, a new brick schoolhouse, which now stands, was ready for occupancy.

In the spring of 1913, the family moved to Dayton, Idaho to live on a large farm. Ford had always been taught to work, and while a young boy, he could handle a team of horses and do a man’s work. In the Winter of 1913, he attended high school in Preston, Idaho, and in the Fall of 1914, the family moved to Logan, Utah, where he attended high school and graduated in 1916. He was active in different organizations of the Church, and advanced in the Priesthood,

On January 17, 1917, Ford was ordained an Elder and on the twenty fifth of January of the same year, he left for a mission to Hawaii. After completing his mission in 1920, he attended the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, Utah, and graduated from that institution in 1924.

He was married on July 20, 1923 in the Salt Lake Temple to Andrea Montess Brimhall, daughter of Hyrum and Johannah Petrerre Jensen Brimhall. She was born February 27, 1899 in Ephraim, Utah.

Ford was employed in the Seven Presidents of Seventies ofice in Salt Lake City until he and his wife were called on a mission to officiate in the Hawaiian Temple in 1925. After being released from that mission, they moved to Honolulu, where he was employed as a salesman for Wakefield & Sons, and worked in that capacity until June 1941, when he was called to active duty as a Lieutenant in the U.S. Navy. He did duty in the 14th Naval District and at sea in the Pacific areas.