Donald R. Clark (CivEngr’72; MS’79)
2025 Distinguished Engineering Alumni Award recipient
After graduating from Boulder with his BS degree in civil engineering in 1972, Clark began an over 52-year career as a consulting engineer for Fox and Associates in Wheat Ridge, Colorado. While at Fox, he started as a staff engineer, later became a division manager, and ultimately served as vice president of that company. During this time, he obtained his MS degree in civil engineering, graduating with that degree in 1979 with an emphasis in geotechnical engineering and a certificate in management.
In late 1989, Clark accepted the position of principal and department manager with Western Technologies Inc. in Phoenix. In September 1992, he joined his current firm, Terracon Consultants Inc. Clark serves as a senior principal and senior consultant in Terracon’s Phoenix office. During his tenure with Terracon, he established Terracon’s Denver (1992) and Phoenix (1995) offices and served as office manager at both locations.
Clark’s experience includes providing consulting geotechnical engineering services on a variety of projects throughout the United States, including geotechnical engineering assessments for buildings, roads, streets, highways, bridges, railroads, pipelines, retention ponds, solar projects, transmission lines, power plants, MSE retaining walls and reinforced soil slopes (RSS). He has provided numerous designs for mechanically stabilized earth retaining walls, reinforced earth slopes, soil nail retaining walls and various types of shoring systems. His professional experience includes geotechnical evaluations of soil conditions for infrastructure improvements, commercial and industrial foundation and pavement construction, power generation and distribution facilities, pavements, and earthen dams. He is a Registered Professional Engineer in 15 states.
Clark is a life member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, an organization he joined while attending Boulder. He was nominated and is a member of Chi Epsilon (the national honorary fraternity for civil engineering) and Tau Beta Pi. He is also a member of Forever Gold and the Alumni Association. His association with also includes teaching intermediate soil mechanics at the Denver Center (1988-89), and financial support of the Clark Conference Room in the Boulder Engineering Center. Clark and his wife, Sharan, have been married for 52 years and together established the Clark Endowed Faculty Fellowship in the Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering.
As one colleague notes in Clark’s nomination for this award, “His family’s history with Boulder, and Mr. Clark’s personal commitment to sharing his time, talents, and treasures with Boulder, is a testament to his servant leadership mindset and his pride for the University of Colorado Boulder and the College of Engineering and Applied Science. Our industry and our engineers are better because of Mr. Clark and all his contributions.”
One of Clark’s greatest enjoyments during his career has included mentoring younger engineers, helping with training for the future. Being in the “people helping people” profession of civil engineering, he hopes that his work on various projects has in some way improved life for humankind.