University of Texas at Arlington

Cadet Corps Alumni Council

Lloyd Clark

Preparation for his 37-year service in the Army of the United States began for Lloyd Clark as an ROTC cadet at North Texas Agricultural College, where he served as commander of the corps in the summer of 1942. As an enlisted man, Clark edited the Camp Hood News (TX), in 1944, and upon completion of Officer's Candidate School in 1945 was assigned as the public relations officer at Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD. Ten of his years as a reservist were spent on active duty. Although he never served overseas, he had extensive experience in combat training - from participating with the U.S. Coast Guard conducting riverboat landings on the Mississippi River to directing operations of a simulated Vietnamese Village at Fort Gordon, Ga., where he served as an instructor at the Civil Affairs School, 1967-69. He was promoted to colonel in 1976 while heading the U.S. Army Reserve School at Fort Huachuca, AZ. He retired from military service in 1979 as director of the National Defense University's course in Phoenix in 1979. Clark was inducted into UTA's Military Hall of Honor in 1998.

Clark's Journalistic career began also at NTAC, where he edited The Shorthorn, 1941-42. During World War II and until 1948 he edited and published Express, a periodical that chronicled NTAC's ex-students' activities. (The UTA Libraries' Special Collections Division has a complete file of the publication that was a forerunner of the present alumni Association's magazine.) After World War II, Clark became a reporter for the Dallas Morning News while completing studies for a Bachelor of Science in Journalism degree at Southern Methodist University. Clark received a Masters in Public Administration from Arizona State University, Tempe, in 1972 and proceeded to serve in governmental regional offices in Flagstaff and Bisbee, AZ. He concluded his public service work as a program administrator for the Arizona Department of Transportation, Phoenix, in 1983. He was a reporter and editor for the Phoenix Gazette, an afternoon daily, for 16 1/2 years and continues to write a weekly column for the Daily News-Sun of Sun City, AZ.

Since then, he has taught Elderhostel and college courses on Arizona and military history, and currently lectures, writes, and conducts tours. He founded the Council on Abandoned Military Posts in 1966. CAMP, now known as the Council on America's Military Past, is a non-profit corporation with some 1,000 members. A former member of the board of the Arizona Historical Society, Clark has been that organization's delegate to the Arizona State Board on Geographic and Historical Names for nine years.

In 1993, the Lloyd Clark Journalism Scholarship was established at UTA by some of his NTAC classmates, led by Fred Freeman of Dallas, his college roommate. Under Auspices of the UTA Alumni Association, the endowed fund makes monetary grants annually to an outstanding student.

Lloyd Clark and his wife, Jean - a native of Prescott, AZ, reside in Surprise, AZ. They have a son and two daughters and eight grandchildren.

http://www.utdallas.edu/~hxh017200/CCAC_WEB/WATNBios.htm

Lloyd and his family were our backyard neighbors on West Hazelwood Street in Phoenix. I remember him and his family. We connected over the years. He was a creative man and faithful neighbor. I posted a picture he took of my sister, a neighbor and me floating around in our backyard in our canoe in 1955, which he got published in the Phoenix Gazette. Rest in peace, Lloyd and best wishes to his family and all who knew him.

Lloyd and I didn’t text – twitter – do laptops – or use smart phones.   Hell, we didn’t even have dumb phones.

But it was always great getting one of his hand-written notes or a phone call such as the last one just a few days before he left us -- “Julian, what was the name of the character Cary Grant played in ‘To Catch a Thief’?”

Or --- “I’ve been humming this song all day long but I can’t come up with the title -- and what show is it from?”

Often he would ask me in front of a larger audience as when he would call in to my trivia show on KTAR radio.  He was one of my regulars.

One time we even drove to Los Angeles for a film convention because he learned that Dorothy Malone (who won an Oscar for “Written on the Wind”) would be making an appearance.   Seems she was in his drama class back in Dallas.  Her name was Maloney at the time.

And I could always count on his dropping in on one of my movie lectures, especially in the Sun City area.  He was front row-center at my Goldwater Lecture Series gig.

We often toasted birthdays together.  In the early years Jean would join us -- usually at Sing High for Chinese in downtown Phoenix.  Later, for about 10 years, reporter Bill Hermann and columnist Sam Lowe joined us.  More recently we got together several times with Linda James-Trujillo and Nadine Reyes.

We also drove down to Tucson on various occasions for meetings of the Arizona Historical Society.  What fun!  I would bring some Big Band cassettes along and we sang along with Artie Shaw and Sinatra and the Andrew Sisters -- to mention a few.

Lloyd and Jean were totally wonderful folks to be around.  Always friendly and positive. Making you comfortable seemed to be their mission.  Absolutely non-judgmental and caring.

To paraphrase from his beloved “Casablanca” -- when we first crossed paths it was “the beginning of a beautiful friendship.”  -JULIAN REVELES

Another fascination of Lloyd's was the joy and promise of numbers.  In addition to a pool for guessing the number of hand cranks of the ice cream freezer on the Fourth of July, he organized pools for every Super Bowl, NBA playoff, tennis tournament, golf tournament, and Kentucky Derby.  

I was not surprised when he wanted to plan something special to commemorate September 9, 1999.  My late husband, Jack, and I celebrated many milestones with Lloyd and Jean - anniversaries, birthdays, and  special events, so we were ready to join in the fun for this distinctive date.  Lloyd planned a weekend for the four of us at the Riverside Casino in Laughlin, Nevada.  At precisely 9:00 p.m. on September 9, 1999, Lloyd, Jean and Jack began dropping 99 silver dollars in the slot machines.  I had special permission from the casino to film this event, so I was not playing the slot machines.  They each staked out two machines and worked quickly to play all their silver coins in nine minutes.  When they finally stopped and counted their winnings, their net was a less-than-impressive $12.00. Sadly, there was not even a "9" in the total.  We all had a good laugh over a glass of wine. 

Dad was assigned by the Phoenix Gazette to do a story about progress in completing the bridge over Glen Canyon in Page, AZ. In 1958 he took this self timed photo of us (Dad, Mom, Grandma Reeves, Roger, Cindy, and Candy) with the bridge in the background.

My memory of my grandparent's house in Surprise is full of smell of Grandma cooking, and baking cookies, playing with a marble maze on the coffee table, running outside on the hot pebbles adorning their back yard, checking out the fake snake to make sure if it was not real by the Arizona and Texas tribute in their garden, carefully admiring the ceramic bunnies in the guest room, playing dominoes with Grandpa then setting them up in a big maze, the smell of flowery barred soap in the bathroom, eating angel food cake with ice cream and strawberries, and on special occasions going into my grandpa's office to use one of his typewriters. 

I remember walking behind him anxiously as he would get out his keys and open the door—a cool breeze hitting me from the AC in the room. It smelt like old papers and his aftershave. Most of the time, I wouldn't write anything, just listen to the sound of my fingers clacking against the keys and getting excited when I hit the return key, so I could hear the ding and push the ink all the way back to the left. I would sit there, happy and content, with Grandpa typing next to me, filing paperwork or writing something by hand. I always felt big and important sitting in those chairs, and extra special if he let me use the electric typewriter. I would do this for years, following my grandpa to his office, after wearing myself out on marbles, playing all the songs I knew on the piano and looking at all the books on the coffee table. The last thing I remember typing with my grandpa is my Grandma's recipe for Joe Froggers. She and I sat down with the cookbook and figured out proportions, or her proportions for the recipe and she gave me her detailed extra steps, down to what kind of mixing bowl to use. I always liked that I had baking in common with my grandma, something that has become particularly close to me after her passing. I can't find the typed copy Joe Froggers recipe anymore, but I do have a copy on my computer. After my Grandma died my Grandpa was always sending me family recipes, knowing that I might be able to make it close to what she did. After making homemade ribbon candy for the first time, I have great respect for homemade treats. Although the heat from the crystallized sugar gave me blisters as I pulled the candy into strings, I would do it again in a heart beat. I loved getting to make some of the recipes he sent me and bring him a bit of nostalgia whenever we visited him.

Grandma and Grandpa were always willing to share their skills, knowledge, love and wit with us. I feel incredibly lucky to have had such bright, kind and talented grandparents. I attribute my baking skills, blue eyes and persistence to pursue want I want to my Grandma, and aspire to be as bright of an influence as she was in the lives of my friends and family. I attribute my love of ice cream and pie and ability to spark up conversations with complete strangers to my Grandpa, and aspire to have the kind of connections and knowledge he cultivated throughout his life. I am very proud to have come from such wonderful people, to have the last name Clark, and to be an Arizonan. Here's to both of my Grandparents with complete love and appreciation! Both of them will always hold a special place and my heart and will be deeply missed. 

While being interviewed by Clark, Wright spontaneously drew two sketches for an inspiring new Arizona State Capitol. The final design was called “OASIS.” Along with the sketches made during the interview, the Frank Lloyd Wright Archives have loaned a 9 foot by 12 foot OASIS model and a series of OASIS digital prints created from the original drawings for the long-term exhibit.

This is not OASIS’ first trip to the Museum. In 1990 Governor Rose Mofford proclaimed a celebration of Wright’s architecture and Arizona’s heritage, as part of the commemoration OASIS was on display.

To set the mood for this special event, Joyce B. Buekers, Founder and Executive Director, of the Harp Foundation will provide music before and after the program. The Harp Foundation provides hours of therapeutic harp music to individuals and their families in the Greater Phoenix area and throughout Maricopa County.

Entry into the Museum is free. For more information visit the Arizona Capitol Museum online at www.lib.az.us/museum or call (602) 926-3620.  Free parking for Museum guests is available in Wesley Bolin Plaza at 17th Avenue and Washington Street.

Operating hours are Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Guided group tours are available by reservation at: www.azlibrary.gov/museum/tourrequest.aspx.

Daily News-Sun file photo | Posted: Thursday, May 31, 2012 7:27 am

Lloyd Clark will share memories of his 1957 interview with Frank Lloyd Wright.

 

The Nation Arizona's Squaw Peak Is Renamed to Honor Soldier The tribute to the first Native American woman killed in the Iraq war came at the governor's behest and with controversy. April 19, 2003|John J. Goldman | Times Staff Writer

After a stormy debate over a name change, Piestewa Peak stood bathed in sunlight Friday as a tribute to the first female soldier -- a Native American -- who was killed in combat in the war in Iraq.

Advocates said the decision to honor Army Pfc. Lori Ann Piestewa, a Hopi who was slain in a firefight after members of the Army's 507th Ordnance Maintenance Company made a wrong turn and were ambushed March 23 near Nasiriyah, also was designed to remove a name many Native Americans found derogatory.

The 2,608-foot mountain in Phoenix previously was called Squaw Peak.

Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano had lobbied hard for the name change.

"The main issues for the governor were she wanted to find a suitable way to honor Lori Piestewa and everything she means to Arizona. She is the first Native American woman to die in combat in a U.S. military capacity," said Kris Mayes, a spokeswoman for the state's chief executive.

"At the same time, the governor wanted to find a way to erase one of the wrongs we have been living with in Arizona for a while, which is the fact we have a major landmark in Phoenix called Squaw which many Native Americans find offensive.... It is something we needed to get behind us."

The Arizona State Board on Geographic and Historic Names voted 5 to 1 Thursday for the change, but its decision was not without controversy.

The board erased the customary waiting period of five years before a landmark can be officially renamed.

"There is no disrespect meant to Private 1st Class Piestewa by my vote on the board," said Lloyd Clark, an historian, who was the only member to cast the dissenting vote. "It did not follow our practice over many years of waiting five years for a person to be deceased before we could accept an application."

Clark said the policy corresponded to the practice of the U.S. Board of Geographic Names, which considers changing names on federal maps and other documents.

He said the decision of the board in Arizona "compromised the integrity of the process we have been following in every other application."

"I voted for her [Napolitano]," Clark added. "But I think she's wrong on this because she is seeking to subvert the process that this state board has followed diligently all these years.

"I was the only voting member on the board who is not a state employee, and all the others, I feel, were thinking of their jobs first before they were considering the facts of changing the name," he said. "By this decision, the board has sacrificed the name and memory of Private 1st Class Piestewa on the altar of political expediency."

Richard Pinkerton, another board member, resigned in protest before the meeting held in the former Supreme Court chambers at the Arizona state Capitol tower.

In his resignation letter, Pinkerton said he thought serving on the board "is no longer worth the effort," adding that he refused to "sacrifice and prostitute my integrity in the interest of satisfying a certain political venue."

"This board was created as a state board, not subject to the governor's beck and call," Pinkerton said.

The group's chairman, Tim J. Norton, did not attend the meeting. Napolitano requested his resignation last week when he initially declined to consider the petition to change the name of the mountain.

Martin J. Pasqualetti, a geography professor at Arizona State University, who voted for the resolution, said there was no political pressure.

"I don't care if it was the governor or a convicted felon who proposed this name change. It was the right thing to do," he said. "There is no doubt that the word 'squaw' is offensive to many people, particularly Native Americans."

Pasqualetti said that before casting his vote with the majority, he did extensive research and found "there are few hard and fast laws that govern the naming of individual landmarks. They are largely policies."

"Changing it from Squaw ... is a proper move. It is an appropriate change," he said. "Secondly, this woman was singular in her sacrifice."

The professor said that when he spoke during the meeting, he asked, "How many times will the first Native American be killed in combat? The obvious answer is once."

FOOTNOTE
As a former educator in Tuba City and friend of the Piestewa family, I disagreed with Dad on this one. For unrelated reasons, Mike Pasqualetti has since become a respected colleague.
Roger


 

The Great Escape of ‘44

KAET video program featuring dad’s commentary: http://www.azpbs.org/arizonastories/ppedetail.php?id=16

The Great Papago Escape was the largest Axisprisoner-of-war escape to occur from an American facility during World War II. On the night of December 23, 1944, twenty-five Germans tunneled out of Camp Papago Park, near Phoenix, Arizona, and fled into the surrounding desert. All of the escapees were eventually recaptured without bloodshed over the next few weeks, and although most were detained within Maricopa County, a few nearly made it to the border of Mexico, which is about 130 miles south of the camp.[1][2][3]

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Papago_Escape
 

Dad was always searching out obscure places in Arizona's history. One spring morning in the 1960s, he pointed our four-wheel-drive Scout toward a wagon route and stagecoach stop known as "Gilette," located along the Agua Fria River south of what is today Black Canyon City. Snowmelt from the Bradshaw Mountains made the normally dry riverbed saturated and apparently bottomless. Upon crossing, we bogged down without hope of self-extraction. Undeterred, we loaded up day packs and walked across the river, found a melting adobe structure and remnants of the stage stop between Prescott and Phoenix. We then backtracked east, past the sunk Scout, and hoofed it to the Black Canyon highway. We hitched a ride to a gas station with a tow service. It was well after dark when we reached home on Northview Ave. in what at the time was North Phoenix. Mission accomplished.

I was a Phoenix paperboy from about 1944 until I was about a Junior at North Phoenix High School.  Little did I know that Lloyd and I would ultimately be in the Papago Trackers together!  My father was commander of the CCC camp at Papago twice, once in 1937/38 and again from January, 1941 until the Army took over in 1942.  I spent many great times out there, making friends with the boys and getting fed in the Mess Hall.

Lloyd realized that I had a unique connection to Papago and, after we got to know each other well, he asked me to continue his program of telling school children, retirees and many others about Papago as a Prisoner of War camp and about the Escape.  He made his pictures, maps, notes and many other related items available to me and I have been continuing his project ever since.  He was a great teacher and I am honored to continue the unique educational effort he began and did so well. 

Grandma was known for being an amazing musician but she was also a fabulous cook/baker. Every 4th of July as long as I can remember we helped churn the homemade icecream Grandma would make. You had until a certain time of that day to call in your guess on the cranks. Grandpa took his numbers and data very seriously and some years the winner would be within 1 or 2 cranks of the total. tI was always so fun to be there to witness the final number and then to know before anyone else who the winner was!