Donald Sherman C l a r k

A T r i b u t e b y W i l l i a m H. C o r m r a n

devoted seven days a

week for more than 50 years to
Caltech, and he was happy to do it.
From 1925, when he came here as a
freshman student until his death on October 2, he gave Caltech everything he
had.
Don received his BS in 1929, his MS

ON CLARK

in 1930, and his PhD in 1934. He was a

teaching fellow and a teaching assistant
during his graduate school years, and
he then went through all the faculty
ranks from instructor in mechanical engineering to emeritus professor of physical metallurgy.
His interest in research was the

dynamic behavior of metals, and he

was greatly honored for his achievements. He and Dave Wood (who was
first his student and then his colleague)
received the Templin Metal Award
from the American Society for Testing
Materials in 1949. The same organization awarded him and Pol Duwez (professor of applied physics and materials
science) the Dudley Medal in 1951.
Don was the 1953 Campbell Memorial
Lecturer for the American Society for
Metals. He was president of the American Society for Metals in 1956-57, and
national president of the engineering
and science fraternity, Tau Beta Pi, in
1962-64.
As a metallurgist, Don had a special
concern for materials and processes.
Many a sophomore student would have
been willing to guarantee that that concern was an all-consuming one. The
students' name for his required course
was "Memory 3." In fact, anyone who
knew Don has to believe that God is
probably now learning something about
iron carbide diagrams that he never
knew before.
Don's textbook Engineering Materials and Processes, which was f i s t
prepared in collaboration with Professor Howard Clapp, is now in its third
edition, and more than 75,000 copies
have been sold. Another textbook, written in collaboration with Professor Will
Varney, was Physical Metallurgy for
Engineers, and it is in a second edition,
having sold over 50,000 copies.
Along with all this, Don handled a
wide assortment of administrative functions at Caltech. In 1935 R. A. Millikan
appointed him Director of Placement,
and for 36 years he was the middleman
between Caltech graduates and the corporations that were interested in hiring
them.
In 1943 Dr. Millikan appointed him
Director of the Alumni Association,
and he served in that capacity until
1945. For 23 years, beginning in 1946,
he was Secretary of the Alumni Association, and in 1965 the members of the
Association tried to indicate their recognition of the quality of his devotion
by establishing a fund in his name the Donald S. Clark Alumni Award, to

ENGINEERING AND SCIENCE

be given to sophomores or juniors (preferably in the engineering option) who

demonstrate leadership potential and
superior academic performance. By
1967 the fund had grown sufficiently
for the first four awards to be made.
He was editor of the Caltech Alumni
Review from 1942 to 1943, and when
the magazine's name was changed to
Engineering and Science in September
of that year, he was named its first
editor-in-chief, a position he filled until
1946.
I think he served on essentially every
faculty committee, and at one time he
was vice chairman of the faculty and the
faculty board.
I suspect that one of the jobs Don
liked best at Caltech was the one he held
for eight years - from 1934 to 1942 as Resident Associate of Dabney
House. He might have held it much
longer, but World War I1 intervened
and made it necessary for Caltech to use
the facility for the Navy V- 12 Program.
Because I lived in Dabney House during Don's tenure there, I can testify that
he was an outstanding RA. Though we
students did almost everything to
bother him, he really made us shape up.
He had no trouble at all with matters of
discipline. One shake of his head was
good and sufficient warning to a wayward undergraduate to tread cautiously
thereafter.
Don also did a lot to introduce culture
to Caltech when he purchased a Hammond electric organ and installed it in
Dabney House. It was used by everybody on campus for years - at no cost
to the administration.
Don worked hard as a teacher and
researcher. He kept records of everything, including the fact that he had
some 4,400 students in his classes during his career. And though, in prewar
days, the number of weekly studentfaculty contact hours was higher than
today, the incredible median number of
such hours for Don from 1934 to 1942
was 22. (If you asked a faculty member
today to have 22 hours of class, you
might have a revolution on your hands .)
Don liked good things, especially
Cadillacs. In the depression period, he
was probably the only one around here

who drove one. He also liked bow ties,

and he was probably the best advertisement for them that the industry has
ever had. He enjoyed good food and
good times, and he contributed some of
his share to both as a chef. One of his
specialties was crepes suzette.
The grounds of his home in Corona
del Mar showed how much joy he took
in gardening. For many years he also
had a lovely home in San Marino,
which he shared with his mother. It had
one of the most beautiful gardens in the
area. Even when he moved to an apartment in Pasadena, he chose one that had
an outdoor patio that he could landscape and care for.
One aspect of Don's personality is
unforgettable. He was a tough-minded,
straightforward guy. Whatever he had
on his mind, he said. My recollection is
that from my student days on he felt
complete freedom to tell me precisely
what he thought on any subject. He
never stopped. Once when he was ill
enough to be confined to the little convalescent hospital across the street from
St. Luke's, I got a hurry-up call to come
up and see him. I don't think he necessarily wanted to see me, but he did want
to tell me to do something -right now.
He waved an injection-molded part for
some device or other in my face and
said, "Did you ever see such a poor
construction job as that? Fix it."
Well, there I was, 56 years old, still
being told by Don (who was 69) to fix
something right now. And I did. If you
know Don, you know that if I had left
there without fixing 'it I would have
been in real trouble.
Don gave a great deal to his students,
to his colleagues - and to Caltech because he was so straightforward and
hard-driving. The legacy of a positive
imprint like that is indeed a measure of
a great life. I am very thankful to have
known him.

As RA of Dabney House back in the late

19301s,Don Clark must have helped
his undergraduate housemate, William
H . Corcoran, onto the right track at
Caltech. Corcoran has since become
professor of chemical engineering and
vice president for Institute relations.

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