UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL OKLAHOMA
AIM 4V.
The Student Voice Since 1903
THURSDAY
SEPTEMBER 16, 1999
Campus community mourns.. .
UCO's Jim Clark dies After fighting fires at his "day job" as a Midwest City Fireman, Jim Clark's second job was teaching UCO freshmen to love reading and writing. lark, a 15-year veteran of the Midwest City Fire Department, was preparing for life after the fire department at UCO. "He wanted to teach full-time after retiring (from the fire department)," said Gary Lott, teaching assistant in the English Department and Clark's friend. "He would have been a great teacher." Clark never got the chance. He died Aug. 8 from injuries he suffered three days earlier while responding to a car accident on a rain-slicked Interstate 40. According to reports in The Daily Oklahoman, Clark was standing between a median and a ladder truck when he was struck by an out-ofcontrol car. The impact threw Clark approximately 15 feet. Clark was passionate about a lot of things, one of which was education. "He felt education was important, and he felt that learning to write was important," Lott said. Lott's friendship with Clark began when they were both undergraduates,
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and that friendship was strengthened when they were both accepted into the English Graduate program. As teaching assistants, Lott said that they both shared the same teaching philosophy. "We both tried to get freshmen to read and write any way we could. We wanted them to get to a point where they wanted to read and write." Clark was a multi-faceted man who had a zest for life. "I used to joke and call him `Today's Renaissance Man' because he knew so much about so many different things," Lott said. "He had a lot of interests and excelled at a lot of different things," Dr. Linda Steele, assistant English professor. "He was a carpenter, an avid reader, a biker, a poet, a fireman, father, husband and friend," Lott said. One talent that Lott will never be able to forget was Clark's storytelling ability. "He's my vision of Mark Twain. He could tell a tale about a very
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—Staff Photo by Shauna Hardway
Lady in red.. . The Old North Clock Tower adds stature to the UCO campus. Built in 1893, Old North was the first building to be built on campus.
University to say final goodbye to teaching assistant at memorial service
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memorial service to honor Jim Clark will be held at 6 p.m. tonight in the Pegasus Theater in the Liberal Arts Building. Clark, a graduate student and teaching assistant in the English Department, died Aug. 8 Clark, a 15-year veteran of the Midwest City Fire
Department, was struck by an out-of-control car on 1-40 while responding to a car accident. Because the accident occurred during the summer break, many of Clark's friends and colleagues were unable to attend the memorial service held immediately after his death, said Gary Lott, teaching assistant in the English
Department and Clark's friend. "The service will be a chance for us to remember him in our own way," Lott said. Several of Clark's coworkers have written tributes and poems that will be read at the memorial. A few of Clark's favorite piano pieces, which Clark learned to play as an adult, will also be performed.
Clark was a member of Sigma Tau Delta, the National English Honor Society. The society will present a plaque in his honor. The • plaque will be displayed in the English department teaching assistants' office. Clark's wife, Janice, and his 13-year-old daughter, Madison, will be in
attendance. "We are really encouraging past students, colleagues and friends of his to attend," said Dr. Linda Steele, associate English professor. A reception will be held immediately following the memorial.
Story by Stephanie J. Eggeling
