R. Inslee Clark, Jr.

Russell Inslee "Inky" Clark, Jr. (1935-August 3, 1999) was an educator, administrator, and a key player in the transition of the Ivy League into co-education in the 1960s.

Personal life

Clark was born in 1935 and graduated from Garden City High School in 1953. Clark graduated from Yale University as a member of the class of 1957. Clark earned a Master's Degree from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University.

Career

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. For decades in college admissions to prestigious, northeastern colleges, "character" had been used seemingly as a code to limit the number of acceptances afforded to secondary school students of Jewish-ancestry and working class Catholics for college settings defined by an Episcopalian or WASP social standard. Associated with this move, Yale, and 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., 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

A cover feature was published in the New York Times Sunday magazine, datelined 6 June 2012,^[1] that reports on many years that faculty members practiced pedophilia among the Horace Mann School student body while Clark was Headmaster and President. Clark was described as one of many teachers and administrators implicated in the criminal behavior and resultant coverup. Clark is acknowledged as a member of the cohort of homosexual and heterosexual pedophiles described in the resultant legal proceedings.

In March 2013, the school, with legal and other counsel, settled many claims brought by victims of sexual abuse during many of the years Clark was associated with Horace Mann School. The New Yorker, datelined April 1, 2013, presented further reportage on pedophilia at Horace Mann School during Clark's tenure. The REPORTER AT LARGE feature was authored by Marc Fisher, an alumnus of Horace Mann School.^[2]

Efforts to rename the school's main athletic field, at present named in honor of Clark, have been successful. ALUMNI FIELD was voted the preferred new name.

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