Former university President Brit Kirwan was a nervous wreck when the corporate giant and university alumnus Alfred James Clark walked into his office in 1994.
Amid pleasantries and sipping tea, Kirwan struggled to gather the courage to “pop the question” — asking Clark for the biggest donation in the university’s history at the time, $15 million, in exchange for Clark’s name on the engineering school building.
“After my soliloquy, there was this pause,” said Kirwan, now the University System of Maryland chancellor. “And [Clark] says, ‘Of course I’ll do it. When I came into the room, I was going to do it. But I thought I needed to make you ask me.’”
It is one of Kirwan’s favorite memories of Clark, the former CEO of multi-billion dollar contracting conglomerate Clark Enterprises Inc., who died Friday at his home in Easton.
The cause of death was congestive heart failure, according to The Washington Post. Clark was 87.
Kirwan said Clark leaves behind a legacy at this university that surpasses that of other alumni and philanthropists.
Notable contributions include Clark’s $15 million donation in 1994, which renamed the engineering school as the A. James Clark School of Engineering; a $30 million donation in 2005 to provide financial support to undergraduate engineering students; and a pledge of $15 million in 2012 to spur the design and construction of A. James Clark Hall, a bioengineering facility slated to open in 2017.
Brian Ullmann, the marketing and communication assistant vice president at this university, said Clark’s lasting impact on thousands of students lies with more than his financial contributions to the university.
“It’s one thing to have your name on a facility, but it’s what we did with that facility … that college impacts the lives of thousands of engineering students,” Ullmann said. “His legacy will live on in the work of those students that graduate from his school.”
Clark Construction Group, which Clark Enterprises oversees, is also responsible for major local and national scale construction projects.
There are 26 campus structures built under Clark’s direction, such as Eppley Recreation Center, the Kim Engineering Building, Oakland and Prince Frederick halls and sections of Byrd Stadium.
CCG also headed the construction of projects such as Nationals Park and the Verizon Center in Washington, FedEx Field in this state and the Music City Center in Nashville, Tennessee.
To be as successful as Clark requires a backbone, Kirwan said, noting that Clark was warm and generous at his core, he epitomized tough love and always set high standards.
“He was focused and disciplined and expected excellence from his team at Clark Enterprises along with those who ran the University of Maryland,” engineering school Dean Darryll Pines wrote in an email. “He loved the University of Maryland, which gave him the foundation to be great in the construction field.”
Clark had to work for his success. Kirwan said Clark’s family was of “very modest means” and that his engineering degree from this university helped him accomplish his corporate goals.
“[Clark] reported that some days he didn’t have enough money to ride the bus to the campus, so he had to hitchhike,” Kirwan said. “This man went on from those circumstances with the benefit of the University of Maryland degree in engineering to become one of the largest construction giants in the industry.”
Clark, who grew up in Bethesda, graduated from this university with a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering in 1950.
After graduating, he worked with Hyman Construction Co. as a field engineer. He became president of the company in 1969, and after creating Omni Construction in 1977, he merged the two companies into the current Clark Enterprises in 1996.
Clark’s awards include the American Society of Civil Engineers OPAL 2006 Lifetime Achievement Award for Construction and the Honor Award from the National Building Museum, and he is an honorary member of the ASCE.
Clark remained involved with the university, serving on this university’s Board of Regents in the 1980s and on the Board of Trustees in the 1990s, Kirwan said.
Pines wrote that Clark visited the campus several times a year and stayed in touch with the university and Clark Scholars, who he “expected to be great leaders.”
“There will be a very small handful of people who enabled the university to take a quantum leap in its quality, and [Clark] will always be in that small handful of people,” Kirwan said. “His legacy will live on for as long as there is a University of Maryland.”
