Joseph S. Clark, 88, Former U.S. Senator

PHILADELPHIA - Former U.S. Sen. Joseph S. Clark, a civil rights advocate in Congress and champion of reform in Philadelphia, has died. He was 88.

Clark died at his home Friday, said his wife, Iris. No cause of death was given.

In 1951, Clark became the city's first Democratic mayor in 63 years, ending a corruption-ridden Republican administration. Five years later, in 1956, Clark was elected to the first of two U.S. Senate terms.

In the Senate, he gained distinction as an intelligent and forceful civil rights advocate, one of the earliest critics of the Vietnam War and a proponent of congressional reform.

``He was an outstanding U.S. senator and public servant. No public servant has done more for the city than Joe Clark,'' said Mayor W. Wilson Goode.

Thacher Longstreth, a political opponent but a personal friend, recalled the days when Clark and the late former Mayor Richardson Dilworth crusaded for reform.

``They were responsible for the halcyon days of 1952 to 1960, when the quality of municipal government in Philadelphia was so high,'' said Longstreth, a Republican city councilman.