Clark, George Denton

CONVOCATION, OCTOBER, 1984
GEORGE DENTON CLARK
to be Doctor of Science

Those who do not remember the era of the veterans who entered the University of New Brunswick after World War II, will not, of course, remember George Denton Clark at that time, but, like many of his fellow veterans, Mr. Clark has given the lie to Dr. Johnson's saying, "superfluous lags the verteran on the stage," for, in his subsequent career, he has been anything but superfluous on a very important stage.

Denton Clark came to UNB in 1946, after having served as a Flying Instructor in the Royal Canadian Air Force in embattled Britain. While at university he lived as a family man in those wooden huts called Alexander College on the Exhibition Grounds. Life at Alexander College, with its rumors of secret stills and the occasional fires which broke out mysteriously, was, apparently, almost as hazardous as the war in which many of its occupants had served, but Denton Clark emerged unscathed to graduate with a B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering, in spite of some difficulties with Economics and English in an otherwise brilliant academic career.

After graduation he joined the army as an engineering officer; then, after a Master of Science degree at McGill and more army service, he went into industry with RCA Victor, as it was then called. Almost immediately, perhaps as a result of his vast experience at Alexander College, he was selected to oversee the fire control systems technology in the CF 105 Arrow Aircraft project. When the project was canceled, he became involved with RCA's Ballistic Missile Early Warning System, and his career, quite literally, took off.

Operations Manager in Greenland and Alaska, Manager of the RCA Missile Test Project at Cape Canaveral, Manager and Viee-President of RCA's Range Projects, he played a key role in the Apollo XI and XII manned space missions, to the moon, and became a living example of his old Air Force motto, Per Ardua ad Astra.

In 1973 Mr. Clark returned to Canada as President of RCA. in Montreal and, in 1976, he became Chairman of the Board, President and Chief Executive Officer. For the past few years, he has done a job which, I understand, gave him - and certainly us - much pleasure, as co-chairman of the Third Century Fund campaign in Toronto.

Denton Clark, however, is the despair of the orator for, like the popular press, an orator thrives on finding chinks in his subject's armour, whereas all of Mr. Clark's friends testify to his uprightness of dealing, his honesty, and his impeccable character. Yet, Mr. Clark is a Maritimer from Prince Edward Island and, typically, he eats a lot of fish, although perhaps less typically, he likes a lot of white wine to go with It. Being no Puritan he would, no doubt, agree with Shakespeare's Iago: “Come, come; good wine is a good familiar creature if it be well used; exclaim no more against it."

So, with no more oratorical exclamation, his alma mater honours Denton Clark with an Honorary Degree, and he honours his alma mater by accepting it.

Insignissime Praeses (amplissima Cancellaria), tota Universitas, praesento vobis GEORGIUM DENTON CLARK ut admittatur honoris causa ad gradum DOCTORIS IN SCIENTIA in hac Universitate.

From: Honoris Causa - UA Case 70, Box 2