Saying farewell to LSU Shreveport Chancellor Larry Clark

A man with a true heart for higher education is stepping down. On Oct. 14, 2022, Chancellor Larry Clark of Louisiana State University Shreveport announced that he would be retiring on June 30, 2023.

During his October announcement, Clark said, "there comes a time. That time has come for me."

During Clark’s tenure as chancellor, cutting-edge places for learning and research have transformed the LSUS campus, including the centralized Student Success Center, Office of Diversity and Inclusion, IdeaSpace, Cyber Collaboratory, Pilot Education Center, Human Performance Lab and Veterans Resource Center.

In the past five years, LSUS has hired more than 60 new faculty members, purchased Pilots Pointe Apartments for students, upgraded the athletics facilities, acquired the Spring Street Historical Museum and increased wages for faculty and unclassified staff.

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Who is Larry Clark?

Lawrence Clark, commonly known as Larry, was born in the northwest corner of Illinois in a town called Freeport.

Freeport is 120 miles west of Chicago and is known as "Pretzel City, USA" due to a popular local German bakery that began serving pretzels in 1869.

"Our high school was the Freeport Pretzels," Clark said. "You had to be tough to play on the high school team, because you got all sorts of flack whenever you were at a visiting place."

Clark played high school basketball, ran cross country and even played golf his ninth-grade year. "My high school basketball coach reflected that I was never very good when I was good, and that was probably true," Clark said.

Upon graduation from Freeport High School, Clark went on to Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois, where he graduated in 1971 and then received his commission into the U.S. Army. He said he was given leave so that he could attend the University of Illinois Chicago, where he received his law degree.

"After law school, the army wasn't quite ready for me," Clark said. "So, I ended up teaching in the fall of 74, and I loved it."

The army was ready for him in 1975, so for three years he served as an active-duty army lawyer.

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But teaching was still calling his name. In 1978 he went back to Northern Illinois University and served as a professor from 1978-81. In 1981, he made the big journey south to serve as a professor at LSUS.

Clark stayed in Shreveport until 1994. He no longer was just a professor but the Dean of the Business School. He left LSUS in 1994 and served as the Dean of the Business school at Sonoma State University and the University of North Carolina Wilmington.

In 2014, he returned to LSUS as the chancellor. When asked why he returned to LSUS he said, "I love the University... the mission of LSUS is a little bit different than some, it is an urban metropolitan university, there are many students that don't have a choice of where they're going to go."

He said he identifies with the academic mission to serve students. "I love stories," he said. "I love seeing people have opportunity and what they do with it."

Although Clark is retiring after serving LSUS as the chancellor for nine years, he said he hopes to return to the classroom, because in the end he will always identify as a professor.

Makenzie Boucher is a reporter with the Shreveport Times. Contact her at mboucher@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Shreveport Times: Saying farewell to LSU Shreveport Chancellor Larry Clark