 "Photo: Laura-Jane Cunningham")
In the celebratory atmosphere of the McDermott Suite in the McDermott Library on June 3, practically half of the people present at the memorial in honor of the former Vice President of Academic Affairs Alexander Clark raised their hands at the question, "who here was hired by the late Dr. Alexander Clark?"
The number of attendees at the service gave an insight into how much the former vice president for academic affairs was both admired and respected by the UTD community.
As vice president for academic affairs from 1974 to 1991, Clark was responsible for the recruitment of more than 130 faculty members, conducting as many as 550 interviews in 1975. Clark also served as acting president from September 1981 to May 1982.
Many of his recruits are still with the university, including School of Economic, Political and Policy Sciences Dean Brian Berry, Ida M. Green professor of Geosciences and director of the Center for Lithospheric Studies George McMehan, professor of Arts & Humanities and director for the Center for Translation Studies Rainer Schultze as well as Graduate Studies Dean Austin Cunningham.
Berry described Clark as one of the founding fathers of the university, noting Clark's ability to look far into the future.
"He had a vision for UTD that was unlike the highly departmentalized universities of the day. He valued multidisciplinary education and created schools with a minimum of internal subdivision to enable faculty to work across disciplines and students to learn from a variety of perspectives," he said.
Cunningham said Clark was always ready to give of himself.
"His greatest pleasure was in helping people, especially younger faculty and many of us are forever in his debt."
Dennis Kratz, dean of Arts & Humanities, said Clark's colleagues admired his willingness to receive frank input and contributions from others.
"He was a leader who respected forthrightness," said Kratz. "I learned that early with him."
Bert Moore, dean of the School of Behavioral Sciences, said two words encapsulated what he learned from Clark: words count.
"(He told me to) be careful of what you say as a leader because people take your words seriously," he said.
Several mentioned Clark's passion for fishing and golf. He was a regular attendee and supporter of UTD's fundraising golf tournament and was present at the 16th Annual Golf Tournament only a week before his death.
After retirement, Clark was a tutor and mentor at Aldridge Elementary School in Plano and volunteered as a court appointed Special advocate at the Collin County Family Court.
Clark's enthusiasm for jazz and his sense of humor met in a request about his funeral, according to his daughter, when he asked for three songs to be played: Sammy Fain's "I'll be seeing you," as well as two of Duke Ellington's pieces; "Do nothing till you hear from me," and "Don't get around much anymore."
Clark's Scottish heritage was honored as his memorial closed with a recital of Robert Lewis Stevenson's "Over the seas to Skye," by his grandson.
The last stanza read; "Billow and breeze, islands and seas, mountains of rain and sun, all that was good, all that was fair, all that was me is gone."
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