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Clark Construction |
An accomplished engineer, entrepreneur, and philanthropist, A. James Clark served as chairman and chief executive officer of Clark Enterprises, Inc., headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland. The company's largest subsidiary, Clark Construction Group, LLC, is one of the largest construction companies in the United States.
The career of A. James Clark is a true American success story. As a young man, fresh out of the University of Maryland in 1950, he joined a small local general contracting company that later would bear his name in his honor. Over the course of the next sixty years, his leadership and vision transformed it into one of the largest construction companies in the nation.
In 1994, he established a $15 million endowment to name the University of Maryland’s School of Engineering, which subsequently became known as the A. James Clark School of Engineering. In 2005, he established a $30M gift to the A. James Clark Scholarship Endowment to provide financial support for Clark School undergraduate engineering students based on merit, need and diversity. His gift strengthened the university’s ability to attract the most talented students nationally and helped address the nation's shortage of highly trained engineers.
Inspired by his strong interest in the promise of biosciences and biotechnology, Clark recently donated $15 million to support the design and construction of the A. James Clark Hall. Slated to open in 2017, Clark Hall will serve as a hub for human health innovation and will be the 27th structure built by Clark Construction on the university’s College Park campus.
Clark has been the recipient of many academic, professional and civic honors. A strong supporter of education, he served as a member of the University System of Maryland Board of Regents, a charter member of the University of Maryland College Park Foundation Board, and was an honorary Trustee of the University of Maryland College Park Foundation. He was also an Emeritus Trustee of the Johns Hopkins University and Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and a member of the PGA Tour Golf Course Properties Advisory Board. He previously served on the Boards of Carr America Realty Corporation, GEICO Corporation, PEPCO Holdings, Inc. and Martin Marietta (now Lockheed Martin). Clark was also a member of Phi Delta Theta.
His family includes his wife of 64 years, Alice Bratton Clark; two sons, Paul Clark and his wife Carroll Parrish of Mill River, Massachusetts and A. James Clark, Jr. of Bethesda, Maryland; a daughter, Courtney Clark Pastrick and husband R. Scott Pastrick also of Bethesda, Maryland; and ten grandchildren.