As wildlife center hits milestones and gets accolades, founder remembers basic mission

Date published: 5/20/2008

WAYNESBORO

The monuments, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and the other markers of service to the country made an impression on him.

"And when I saw John F. Kennedy on television, talking about what you could do for your country, I was sure he was talking to me," said Clark, the president and driving force behind the Wildlife Center of Virginia.

I was thinking of Clark last week reading that the Waynesboro teaching and research hospital for wildlife and conservation medicine had just admitted its 50,000th patient, a common loon with foot injuries.

That milestone followed the Wildlife Center's 25th anniversary last fall and a prestigious National Conservation Achievement Award.

Given at a black-tie dinner hosted by naturalist Jack Hanna, the award from the National Wildlife Federation was for the center's leadership in conserving wildlife and connecting people with nature.

While all the accolades wouldn't have come without the work of many staffers and veterinarians over the years, the center wouldn't be what it is without Clark.

I first met the confident man of conscience in the late 1980s when he and a handful of others opened a small wildlife hospital in a Weyers Cave double-wide.

The center moved to Waynesboro in 1995, starting a groundbreaking wildlife veterinary program that has trained more than 500 students.

Along the way, the center added educational and advocacy components that made Clark and the hospital stars on "Animal Planet," brought them advisory roles with governments from the U.S. to Latin America and made eagles and other teaching animals fixtures in schools across Virginia.

I sat down with Clark a while back to talk about his career.

The lanky outdoorsman, who still loves nothing better than personally releasing rehabilitated eagles and other animals, initially wanted to go to law school.

Circumstances intervened, and he used skills learned working college summers as a carpenter to teach shop at the Virginia School for the Deaf and Blind.

He liked teaching, but was drawn by his interests and convictions to the fledgling environmental movement.

Date published: 5/20/2008