A gentle mid-spring breeze washes across the Leo Clark ranch, making the flowers flutter softly. There are hundreds and hundreds of them, mostly irises, with names that hint at their real beauty, such as gala madrid, deep fire, pearl chiffon, flaming light and laced cotton.

Leo Clark is a pioneer with many accomplishments. Not only is he known internationally for his work with irises; he is regarded locally as somewhat of a legend.

At age 92, he has resided in Tehama County all of his life. Clark was born on Christmas Day of 1892 just a few miles from the stone mansion north of Corning at the end of Davis Road, where he has lived since 1900.

The serenity and quiet that surrounds Clark's home is only occasionally broken by the warnings of a closeknit trio of turkeys, a pair of white peacocks and flocks of fancy chickens and rare geese, which comprise yet another of Clark's avocations.

The youngest of eight children, Clark is the last survivor of his family. Longevity, though, apparently runs in the Clark family, as an elder brother, Ray, lived to age 96. "A good life, a happy marriage and being the baby of the family," is what Clark attributes his long and fruitful life to.

Clark's parents, Elizabeth and Henry Clark, married in Illinois. It was in the late 1890's when Henry Clark ventured from the Midwest to Corning with the hope of earning enough money to send for his wife and children.

It took him almost three years to be able to send for them, and that was only possible after he had secured a job in a livery stable in Princeton.

Henry Clark was a stern, authoritative man who believed in hard work--an attribute he passed on to his children. The elder Clark's hard work eventually facilitated the purchase of the Davis Road stone mansion and 2,400 acres of flatlands in 1900.

The stone mansion was built by Chinese labor in 1852 for Senator Henry Wilson with 14-inch thick walls of lime water and cobblestone. Many of the two-story house's original building supplies were stripped from faraway lands, around Cape Horn.

"The Wilson and Clark families are the only two families to have ever lived in this house," Clark says.

Perhaps an accurate assessment of the stone mansion, that today seems scarcely touched by more than 130 years of generations passing through its doors, is solid, secure and incredibly unique--which could also describe its longest inhabitant.

Clark graduated from Corning grammar school in 1903. Though he helped his family in the farming and ranching of the Clark ranch, and continues to raise cattle, Clark valued a higher education.

He attended Heald's College in Chico, graduating in 1915. Clark's father wasn't entirely appreciative of his son's aspirations, but the enterprising "farm boy" raised the college money himself by leasing the 320 acres of the ranch that was his share at that time. Clark wasn't the only 1915 graduate of Chico's Heald's College from Corning.

"Also graduating that year from Corning was Ruth Mitchell (a longtime Tehama County turkey rancher), John Moran, Hanna DeGroot and some others. There were at least six of us," Clark recalls.

Thoughts of college and courting days evoke some of the "sweetest memories" for Clark.

Clark, often with a horse and buggy, and "buddy" Hugh Moran, often on a motorcycle, "would go off to see the girls" at every possible opportunity.

The girl Clark went to see the most was Ida Hopkins of Paskenta. Leo and Ida married in 1918, and though they never had any children of their own, they did raise two foster children. Ida Clark died in 1968 at age 76 after many years of being an invalid from a stroke. Her husband singlehandedly cared for her during those years and remembers:

"The more I had to take care of her, the more I loved her."

In 1927 Clark joined the Masonic order at Molino Lodge No. 150, F & AM in Tehama. The first Molino Lodge building now houses the Tehama County Museum. Clark was chosen to serve as worthy patron, Molino Chapter No. 83, OES six times. He still attends lodge meetings in Corning, and is the oldest living member in both Corning and Los Molinos lodges.

Raising flowers, primarily irises and roses, and rare and exotic birds has been a part of Clark's daily life for more than 60 years.

So many varieties of irises are planted and labeled, in a fenced area next to the stone house, that even Clark is not sure how many varieties there are. Though he still tends to the flowers, Clark receives assistance from various community service clubs and iris lovers.

Iris lovers from all over the country and many parts of the world have enjoyed hybrids developed by Clark. "Some of my irises are now in Israel, Holland, Austria and all over the U.S.," Clark notes.

A member of the Iris Society International, to which Clark has donated both money and knowledge, Clark also has a local society named after him, the Leo T. Clark Foothill Iris Society. In April of 1985 the local society held its first iris show and display in Chico's North Valley Plaza mall.

Clark's work in iris hybrids received even more national attention about two years ago when the Los Angeles Times ran a photo and caption on him, dubbing him the "Grand Old Man of Irises."

Of the publicity, Clark comments: "That photo went all around the world. I've received quite a bit of unsolicited publicity--which I really don't want--due to the irises. I am proud though of my 60 years of work with the irises, but I don't deserve the title."

Pointing at a framed color picture of one of his hybrids, Clark muses, "That one is called Leo's Magic. It's supposed to be my masterpiece, but I hardly believe that all this has happened...I can't even remember all the irises named after me--because I didn't name them myself!"

Leo's magic, both the flower and the man, are intriguing, spreading beauty for thousands who share the appreciation of irises. Clark has a love for life, hard work and his irises that hasn't dimmed for 92 years, and isn't likely to in the near future.

"There are some irises," he marvels, "coming out here that I will see for the first time this spring. That's the excitement of it! I always picture in my mind what the iris will look like, but I never know exactly until I see it."

As he sits on the front porch of his big stone house, looking out at the iris blooms bursting with radiant colors, one is sure that Leo Clark is not only a "Grand Old Man of Irises," but also a "Grand Old Man of Corning."