As Director of Undergraduate Admissions (1965-1969) at
Yale University, Clark oversaw the school's transition to a coeducational admission policy, and shares credit with Yale President
Kingman Brewster for establishing academic credentials in the admissions process. Clark was academic dean at
Trumbull College, one of the twelve residential colleges constituent to
Yale College, 1963 - 1965. For decades prestigious northeastern colleges had used "character" as a code word to limit the number of acceptances afforded to secondary school students with
Jewish and working class Catholic backgrounds to colleges traditionally defined by an Episcopalian or
WASP social standard.
Negroes were invisible on campus. Associated with this move, Yale, followed by other prestigious colleges in the northeast section of the United States, recruited for the first time beyond the prep school orbit of New England and mid-Atlantic boarding schools, and private schools in
New York City,
Boston,
Philadelphia,
Baltimore, and
Washington, D.C. This new policy is now a standard in their respective admissions practices. Headmaster and President (1970-1991) of the
Horace Mann School in the
Bronx, New York, Clark reintroduced co-education and oversaw the school's merger with the Barnard School. His obituary, published August 7, 1999 in
The New York Times, read: "a brilliant, dynamic teacher, he taught an Urban History course and took students into prisons and courtrooms to learn first hand about the complex urban issues confronting
New York City. His inspirational leadership, his ebullient personality...His impressive intellect and passion for baseball are legendary." ==Horace Mann School pedophilia scandal==