Former U.Va. Board Member Champ Clark Receives Samuel Crockett Award
June 27, 2000

Champ Clark, a former member of the University of Virginia's Board of Visitors, has been presented the 2000 Samuel Crockett Award in recognition of his efforts to strengthen the relationship between The University of Virginia's College at Wise and its parent institution.

UVa-Wise Chancellor L. Jay Lemons presented the award to Clark at the April meeting of U.Va.'s Rector and Board of Visitors. While serving on the Board of Visitors, Clark chaired what was then a special committee on the College at Wise. Clark was instrumental in establishing the Boards' standing committee on the College at Wise.

"My work with The University of Virginia's College at Wise was very much a labor of love," Clark said in a prepared statement. "Until I became a member of the Board of Visitors, I had never heard of (what was then) Clinch Valley College. Yet, within a short time, I had learned to love the place, and to love the people, and most of all to love the mission of providing a high quality college education to the sons and daughters of a deprived region of our Commonwealth."

A former senior national correspondent and senior editor of Time magazine, Clark was appointed to the Board of Visitors in 1996. Clark, who has health problems, was not reappointed for a second four-year term.

Clark, who attended the University of Missouri and Purdue University before serving in the U.S. Marine Corps as a Japanese interpreter during World War II, started his journalism career at the Kansas City Star as a general assignment reporter. From 1951-1973, Clark was a writer and senior editor for the "Nation" section of Time. He also served as Midwest bureau chief and senior national correspondent. By the time he left Time in the 1970's, he had written 65 cover stories, more than anyone in the magazine's prior history.

Clark moved to Virginia in 1974 and has taught courses in newsmagazine writing at the University of Virginia since 1975. He is the author of several books, such as The Badlands, Flood, Decoying the Yanks, Gettysburg, and Assassination. He has also edited 50 other works as a free-lancer for Time-Life Books. Clark and his wife, Mitzi, reside in Ruckersville.

The Crockett Award is named in honor of Samuel Crockett, Jr., who served as the University's extension division's representative in Southwest Virginia in the early 1950's. Crockett was instrumental in convincing the University's administration of the need for a branch college in Wise. After the College's founding in 1954, Crockett served as its chief administrative officer for two years.

The Crockett Award was initiated in consultation with Mr. Crockett's family after his death in April of 1995. The award itself is composed of materials from the old Martha Randolph Hall, consisting of native stone, oak, and wormy chestnut. The award was designed by Jim C. Lipps, Jr., the College's first Buildings and Grounds Director.

Past recipients include U.Va. President John T. Casteen, III, former U.Va. rector Hovey S. Dabney, former U.Va. institutional planner Stephen D. Campbell, U.Va. Chief Financial Officer Leonard W. Sandridge, and U.Va. Librarian Karin Wittenborg.

Ranked by U.S. News and World Report as one of the South's top public liberal arts colleges, UVa-Wise is home to 1,500 students.