ALUMNI BREAKFAST

HONORED ALUMNIS: DAVID L. CLARK

BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY PROVO, UT 84602

Born in New Mexico, reared in Houston, Dave attended BYU, Columbia, and the University of Iowa (Ph.D). His academic career began at Southern Methodist University in 1957, where he taught paleontology and initiated research on Texas Cretaceous ammonoids and Utah Paleozoic conodonts. In 1959, he accepted a position at BYU and expanded the conodont research with National Science Foundation support that continued for the next 3 decades. In 1963 he joined the Department of Geology and Geophysics at the University of Wisconsin and during the following 36 years served as Professor, Department Chairman, and Associate Dean of the College of Letters and Sciences. In the latter position, he was administrator for Natural Sciences of the College. As Department Chairman, he supervised construction of a new geology building and was instrumental in securing almost $5 million for the department’s endowment. He was a Senior Fulbright Visiting Professor in Germany in 1965-66. In 1967 he expanded his research program and with support from the Office of Naval Research, the NSF, and the U. S. Geological Survey, studied Arctic Ocean sediment, protists and other fossils. In recognition of this twin-research program, in 1973, relatively early in his academic career, he was named to a chaired professorship at Wisconsin, becoming the W. H. Twenhofel Professor.

Some 80 graduate students (Ph. D. and M. S.) and 13 post-doctoral fellows were involved with the conodont and Arctic Ocean research programs. These former students teach (or have taught) at 32 universities, work with the USGS, or are employed by oil companies. His conodont program was important for the development of a worldwide conodont biostratigraphy. In recognition of this, he was asked to organize and serve as senior author of the conodont volume of the Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology. Clark’s Arctic Ocean research resulted in definition of the geologic history of the Arctic Ocean, its sediment patterns and description of its extant and fossil invertebrate faunas and floras. Because of his work in the Arctic Ocean, he was appointed to the National Academy of Sciences’ Polar Research Board, where he served for 6 years including 4 years as Chairman. In this position he was Chairman of the U. S. National Committees for both the Arctic and the Antarctic. In 2001, he was named a National Associate of the Academy. The same year, he received the Raymond C. Moore Medal for Excellence in Paleontology from the Society for Sedimentary Geology. He served as the first Secretary of the Arctic Research Consortium of the U. S. and was a member of more than a dozen international and national committees related to paleontology and oceanography.

Dave’s 1954 M. S. thesis became the first publication in the BYU Geology Department’s Geology Studies Series and this was followed by more than 150 additional publications that include two Memoirs and two Special Papers of the Geological Society of America as well as a paleontology text. Ecclesiastical work includes service as Bishop, member of 3 Stake High Councils, Stake Presidency member, and Stake Patriarch, publications concerning history of the Church in Wisconsin, and editor of a book that involves LDS theology and science. His personal life has centered on his wife of 55 years, Louise, sons Steven and Douglas, daughters Julee Kowallis and Linda Lowe, and 16 grandchildren.

Attendees of the Alumni Breakfast:

*not alumni

James Baer

Gerry Morton

Mack Croft

Tom and Mary Chidsey

Lawrence and Rebecca Bagshaw

Revell and *Larue Phillips

Steve and Barbara Church

Gleen and Connie Embree

Ferd and Valentina Meyer

Jay and Tora Gatten

Ray and Kaye Rutledge

Reed and Valeen Bitter

Winston L. Williams

David and *Griselda Christiansen

Roger and Ivonne Palmer

Julie and Grant Willis

Mike and Lorraine Pinnell

Gregg Jones

John and Dorothy Teichert

Shiloh Howland

Emily Bartlett

Kenneth Larsen

Jeff Keith

Randy and Dedi Skinner

Eugene and *Joanne Clark

Eric and Bev Christiansen

*Ron and *Deb Harris

Bill and Marcia Keach

Bart and Julee Kowallis

Tom and *Lisa Morris

Steve and Donna Nelson

Paul and *Joan Nixon

Scott and Kathie Ritter

Dave and Colleen Tingey

Kris Mortensen

Lehi ans *Ione Hintze

Keith Rigby

Mike Hansen

Lyle and *Jackie Phillips, *Jared