Glenwood Clark

Glenwood Clark, Vice Admiral, U.S. Navy (retired), died Nov. 19. He was 86.

Clark was born in Shreveport, La., on December 18, 1926. He attended Louisiana State University from September 1943 to December 1944, where he was a member and president of the local chapter of Sigma Chi fraternity.  

He enlisted in the Navy in December 1944 and entered the U. S. Naval Academy in June 1945. After graduation, he and Myrtle (Tookie) Conrad were married on June 9, 1949, in her hometown of Breaux Bridge, La.

After graduation with distinction from the U.S. Naval Academy in June 1949, Clark served on USS Sperry (DD 697) until July 1951. During this period, Sperry was deployed for eleven months in the Korean War zone. He subsequently served in the Atlantic Fleet Amphibious Force until the summer of 1954, first as air controller in TACRON 6 and then as Operations Officer of the USS Carter Hall (LSD 3).

From August 1954 until June 1957, Clark attended the U. S. Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, completing his thesis work at the Radiation Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley. He received a master’s in physics from the U. S. Naval Postgraduate School in June 1957.

Following graduate school, he served in the Navy's first Talos missile cruiser, USS Galveston (CLG 3) as missile officer until March 1960. He subsequently served until March 1963 at the Atomic Energy Commission's Lawrence Radiation Laboratory (now known as the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory) as a nuclear weapon design physicist. He was co-designer of two experimental high yield thermonuclear warheads tested at Christmas Island.

Clark was responsible for all aspects of the research, development, production, and operational support of the Navy's submarine Fleet Ballistic Missile Weapon Systems, which included the POLARIS, POSEIDON, TRIDENT I, AND TRIDENT II weapon systems. He also was the U. S. Project Officer responsible for managing all U. S. government activities in support of the British POLARIS/TRIDENT II programs.

From July 1985 until his retirement on July 1, 1988, he commanded the Navy's Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command.

Subsequent to his retirement from the Navy he served as: senior vice president of Systems Planning and Analysis Inc. until April 1994; a director of Charles Stark Draper Laboratory, Inc. (1990-1999); a member of the Space Advisory Board, JHU/APL (1991-1999); and a director of Bell Geospace Inc. (1997-1999).

His military decorations include two Navy Distinguished Service Medals, the Legion of Merit, the Navy Meritorious Service Medal, the Joint Service Commendation Medal, and three Navy Unit Commendation Medals. In addition to his military awards, Admiral Clark was honored by the Navy League of the United States as the recipient of the 1980 Rear Admiral William S. Parsons Award for scientific and technical progress in the Navy. In 1988, he also was honored as the recipient of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Missile Systems Award. In June 1990, his wife, Tookie Clark, christened the nuclear attack submarine, USS Alexandria (SSN 757).

Clark is survived by his wife of 64 years, the former Myrtle (Tookie) Conrad and their two children, John Glenwood Clark of Los Angeles, Calif. and Pamela Clark Brown of Landenberg, Pa., and two grandchildren.

A memorial mass will be held at 10 a.m. on March 29 at Blessed Sacrament Church, 1427 West Braddock Road, Alexandria, Va., 22302. Interment will be on April 24 at 2 p.m. at the United States Naval Academy, 121 Blake Road, Annapolis, Md., 21402. In lieu of flowers, please donate to TechnoServe, an organization that provides business solutions to poverty.