Notable members of the Clerk family across successive generations include:
First generation •
Alexander Worthy Clerk (1820 – 1906), a Jamaican Moravian missionary, teacher and clergyman, was the
patriarch of the Clerk family of Accra. •
Jane Elizabeth Clerk (1904 – 1999) was a schoolteacher and pioneer woman education administrator on the Gold Coast. •
Theodore Shealtiel Clerk (1909 – 1965) was the first formally trained, professionally certified Ghanaian architect of the Gold Coast who received the
Rutland Prize from the
Royal Scottish Academy in 1943. A presidential advisor to Ghana's first leader,
Kwame Nkrumah, Clerk was the chief architect, town planner and the first chief executive officer (CEO) of the
Tema Development Corporation, a role in which he planned, designed and developed the post-independent metropolis of
Tema, the location of the largest seaport in Ghana, the
Tema Harbour. He was an Associate of the
Royal Institute of British Architects and the
Royal Town Planning Institute. In 1964, Theodore Clerk became the first president of the first national professional society, the
Ghana Institute of Architects, started in 1963, for the promotion of the architectural practice, education and accreditation in Ghana. •
Matilda Johanna Clerk (1916 – 1984) was the second Ghanaian woman and the fourth West African woman to become a medical doctor. M. J. Clerk was also the first Ghanaian woman in any field to win an academic merit scholarship for university education abroad and the first woman in Ghana and West Africa to attend graduate school and earn a postgraduate diploma. Additionally, she was the joint second Ghanaian woman and joint fifth woman in West Africa to receive a baccalaureate degree.
Fourth generation •
Nicholas Timothy Clerk (1930 – 2012) was an
academic, administrator and
Presbyterian minister . Between 1977 and 1982, he served as the
Rector of the
GIMPA, the nation's premier graduate school of public policy, public administration and governance or statecraft. He was also the vice-chairman of the
Public Services Commission of Ghana and the Chairman of the Public Services Commission of Uganda from 1989 to 1990. •
George Carver Clerk (1931 – 2019) was a pioneering
botanist and
plant pathologist in Ghana and West Africa. A professor and later, an emeritus professor at the
University of Ghana, Legon and a Fellow of the
Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences, elected in 1973, he focused his research on the
ecology,
mycology and phytopathology of indigenous flora in Ghana and West Africa. •
Pauline Miranda Clerk (1935 – 2013) was a civil servant, diplomat and a presidential advisor. •
Alexander Adu Clerk (born 1947) is an academic,
sleep medicine specialist,
psychiatrist and a Fellow of the
American Academy of Sleep Medicine, who became the Director of the world's first sleep medical clinic, the
Stanford Center for Sleep Sciences and Medicine from 1990 to 1998.
Fifth generation • Nicholas Timothy Clerk, Jnr. (born 1963) is a
consultant obstetrician-gynaecologist with a specialty in
ambulatory gynaecology. A medical lecturer, he is a Fellow of the
Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. • Christine Alexandra Clerk (1967 – 2018) was a physician and an
epidemiologist, with a focus on
malaria research and
diagnostics,
adolescent health and
HIV in pregnant women. A
clinical research scientist, she worked at public health research centres at
Dodowa and
Navrongo, in academia at the University of Ghana, Legon and at
PATH, a
global health institution in
Seattle. Christine Clerk was also a Gates Malaria Partnership Scholar at the
London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. == List of public memorials ==