1871 – 1941
Teacher & School Administrator
From Texas Under Many Flags – Published in 1930
Randolph Lee Clark, superintendent of schools at Gainesville and president of Gainesville Junior College, is a recognized leader among the modern educational forces in the State of Texas. His own career supplements that of his honored father, Randolph Clark, one of the grand old men in the history of Texas education. The career of his father is fully sketched on other pages of this publication.
Randolph Lee Clark was born at Fort Worth, Texas, June 3, 1871, and spent most of his boyhood and youth at Thorp Spring, where his father and uncle were conducting the famous Add-Ran College. Randolph L. Clark himself is a graduate of that famous school, taking his A.B. degree there and subsequently received the Master of Arts degree from the University of Texas. His first important school work was done at DeSoto, Texas, after which he was principal of the high school at Granbury, and after studying in the University of Chicago became associated with the Jarvis Institute at Thorp Spring as teacher of language and history. For four years he was superintendent of school at Iowa Park, Texas, was located at Anson one year, and during 1911-13 was employed as general agent of the Conference of Education of Texas, Austin, Texas. For a brief time he was chairman of the State Board of Examiners and then became field representative of Midland College and was dean of that school during 1914-15. Mr. Clark from 1915 to 1923 was superintendent of schools at Wichita Falls and since 1923 has been superintendent at Gainesville. In 1922 he established a junior college at Wichita Falls, and he organized in 1924 the Gainesville Junior College. He has the distinction of having established the second municipal junior college in the State of Texas.
His services in the educational field are not to be measured entirely by the institutions named above. He has been engaged in work as an instructor and in other capacities in summer sessions of many colleges and normal schools. He is a member of the Texas Education Commission, is a life member and a past president of the Texas State Teachers Association, a life member and a past vice president of the National Education Association, and was on the State Text Book Commission. He belongs to the college fraternities Kappa Delta Pi and Phi Delta Kappa. Mr. Clark has completed much of the work leading up to the degree Doctor of Philosophy. During the World war Mr. Clark was personnel secretary of the Y.M.C.A. for Texas, with headquarters in San Antonio. He is a Democrat in politics.
He married Miss Leni Leoti Sypert, whose parents, Joseph M. and Virginia (Reed) Sypert, were early settlers of Bell County, her grandfather Reed serving as the first sheriff of that county. Mrs. Clark has many things in common with Mr. Clark in his school and cultural interests. While she was in Baylor College she specialized in piano and violin and later graduated in voice at Texas Christian University. They are the parents of nine children, and all of them have exhibited special talent in school work, with an interesting diversity of tastes and accomplishments. These children are Mary S., Virginia B., Leoti, Lee, Jr., Irene L., Joseph A., Helen, Dorothy and Mignon. The four married daughters are Mary, Virginia, Leoti and Irene.
| Randolph Lee Clark was born on June 3, 1871 in Fort Worth, Tarrant County, Texas. He died on February 19, 1941 in Cisco, Eastland County, Texas. |
SOURCE
Texas Under Many Flags, Volume III.
Clarence R. Wharton, Author and Editor.
1930: The American Historical Society, Inc.,
Chicago and New York.