RE Log - Fall 2022

8 Ransom Everglades LOG FALL 2022 David Clark: Chief Operating Officer & Interim Head of the Upper School The return of a diehard Raider What really drives David Clark ’86 , Ransom Everglades’ new Chief Operating Officer and Interim Head of the Upper School, is evident the moment a visitor walks into his office in Cameron Hall. A business card holder sits at the front of Clark’s desk, prominently displayed. Instead of cards identifying Clark and his job title, the business cards are imprinted with two words in capital letters: “YOU MATTER.” Clark shares the cards with students, and asks them to pass them on. “To help others get the most out of their experience, that is really, really important,” he said. “I want to help build this community to a place where people really love being in school. I want kids to say: I don’t want to go home because I love being here so much.” When he arrived as a high school junior to Ransom Everglades School, his nervousness was assuaged by the proximity of his grandparents, who lived less than a mile from the upper school on Charles Avenue. Clark fondly remembers spirited family gatherings at their white-and-green frame house and stirring Sunday services at nearby Christ Episcopal Church. (The historic house of worship was founded in 1901 by his great grandparents and other Bahamian immigrants.) Yet by the time he graduated two years later, Ransom Everglades had become his new home away from home. He excelled in his classes, built relationships with teachers and peers, starred on the football team and set school records in track before heading to Dartmouth College. He came to school early, stayed late, and loved it. His return to RE after 23 years at Pine Crest School in Fort Lauderdale, where Clark had climbed to Head of School on the Boca Raton campus, has left his heart swelling. “I am coming back to be who I am,” Clark said from behind his desk shortly before the start of the school year. “I don’t have to be anyone else. This is my home. This is where I have grown up. This is what made me. And I have an obligation, I have a responsibility to give back, and that’s Paul C. Ransom’s words right there … It’s a blessing, a true blessing for me.” As COO, Clark is overseeing the school’s athletics, admission, advancement and business offices while working closely with Interim Head of School Rachel Rodriguez. As Interim Head of the Upper School, he has been actively engaged with RE students and families. He also stands ready to welcome the next head of school, expected to be in place by next summer. He knows some parents will see him as a devoted alumnus. Many alumni remember him as a fellow classmate, teacher or coach. Others may be inspired seeing a Black man in leadership. He accepts all of it. At the core, he said, they all want the same thing. “People want to know,” he said, “that there is someone there looking after the best interest of their child.” The Influencers Clark knows he was shaped by many people, many opportunities, many moments. His mother. Football. Various mentors. The community at Christ Episcopal Church. Ransom Everglades wasn’t the only influence, but his arrival to the school changed the arc of his life in a magnificent way. He started tenth grade at Miami Killian High, where he excelled in the classroom and on the field. Though he spent many childhood weekends at his grandparents’ house, he knew nothing about Ransom Everglades; a private school was simply not on his family’s radar. When his high school football coach accepted a job at Ransom Everglades, the coach urged Clark and several teammates to apply. Clark and his buddies showed up at the RE middle school on a Saturday to take the SSAT. He and teammate Rob DePriest ’86 – who was hired this summer as Director of Security at RE – performed well on the test, and both received good news from RE. Clark’s mother had to leave school to take care of her mother after her eighth-grade year at George Washington Carver Middle School, where she had met Clark’s father. Her own father had been a garbage collector, and her mother cleaned houses. She landed a position at Eastern Airlines and worked hard, winning employee of the month multiple times, and she wanted her children to walk through any doors opened to them. So when her son was invited to join the 11th grade at Ransom Everglades, she saw it not as an option to be considered, but an opportunity that couldn’t be passed up. Recalled her son: “She looked at me and said: ‘You don’t have a choice. You’re going.’” Life at RE and Beyond His first day of school was also his first day on the upper school campus. The transition wasn’t easy, but he befriended players on the football team, worked hard to get acclimated, and focused on the positive – which wasn’t difficult. He remembers being mesmerized by the colorful cannon and glistening bay. He learned from his new peers, and they learned from him. Soon, they were picking him up for events and parties, and inviting him for overnight visits. Meanwhile, he invested significant time and energy into his studies and activities. He recalls the late Jerry Exum, then math