Charles Taliaferro Clark

Charles Taliaferro Clark, age 97, died November 25. He was born in Illinois to Charles A. Clark and Kathryn Sneed Clark, graduated from Highland Park High School in Dallas, Texas, and attended Northwestern University, where he was a member of Delta Upsilon fraternity. He later attended the University of Texas, earning his BBA in 1938, MBA in 1939, and PhD in business administration in 1956. His Master's thesis was adopted as the basis for UT's system of classified personnel. While at UT, Chuck served as APO president and was initiated into the Friars Society. As an Eagle Scout himself, he, with UT's Dean of Men, Arno Nowotny, started a popular Boy Scout troop at University Presbyterian Church. His "boys" became his lifelong friends who later met for lunch monthly well into their 80s.

After he earned his master's degree, Chuck served as assistant manager of the Austin Chamber of Commerce under Walter Long. In 1943, he married Pearl DuBose and together they moved to the University of Washington, where Chuck entered a U.S. Army Air Corps intensive Japanese language study program.

During World War II, Chuck hopscotched around the South Pacific, often landing in small planes on deserted islands in order to intercept and translate Japanese coded messages. He entered Tokyo on the first day of the Allied Occupation, and there he served as an organizer, translator, and interpreter, traveling throughout the country and deepening his appreciation for the Japanese people and their culture. On one trip to a mountain village, Chuck befriended two doctors who were married and had a small child. After the war, Chuck and Pearl honored this family's requests over several years, first for food, then blankets, then books, and, once conditions had improved, for sheet music. Several years later, the couple's daughter came to live with the Clark family while she attended the University of Texas. She became the first of dozens of the "adopted children," many foreign students, who filled the Clark home on holidays and between semesters.

Chuck returned to UT after the war, first to the Student Life office, and later as UT's director of personnel. Filling in as a teacher one semester, he found he enjoyed teaching so much that, thereafter, he taught business statistics full time in the College of Business. Apart from his family, teaching was the most important part of Chuck's life. He thoroughly enjoyed interacting with students, and at one time the University announced he had earned more teaching excellence awards than anyone on the faculty at that time. Named the Mary Lee Harkins Sweeney Centennial Professor Emeritus in Business, Chuck retired from teaching in 1985. In retirement he continued to encourage students in their education, and in 2002 he endowed a music scholarship in memory of his wife, the late Pearl DuBose Clark.

Always active in civic organizations, Chuck was a past president of the West Austin Rotary Club, the Austin Personnel Association, and the Austin Statistical Association; and past national president of the College and University Personnel Association. He also served on numerous UT committees, the University Federal Credit Union board of directors, and the local Girl Scouts board. He was a founder of the Delta Upsilon chapter at UT. He co-authored two of the most widely adopted textbooks on business and economic statistics. He was listed in Who's Who.

He was predeceased by his parents; his brother, William S. Clark; wife, Pearl; daughter-in-law, Roxanne Clark; and son-in-law Dale Short. He is survived by son Charles A. Clark of Austin; daughter Mary Clark Short Abernathy (Bill), of Lewisville; and son Robert S. Clark of Austin and Denver. Chuck was blessed with six grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren, and he remained an important influence in the lives of his family until the end.

University Presbyterian Church was a cornerstone of Chuck's life for almost 80 years. There will be a memorial service at 2:00 p.m. on Friday, December 12, 2014, with The Rev. San Williams officiating.

Memorial contributions may be made to the Pearl DuBose Clark Endowed Presidential Scholarship at UT's Butler School of Music, the UT Retired Faculty-Staff Association Scholarship Fund, or the University Presbyterian Church Memorial Fund.