DUANE
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Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll pass it along just the same. There's a certain kind of Texan who keeps showing up in the right place at the right time, and Randolph Lee Clark was one of those men. Born in Fort Worth in 1871, he didn't start out in a schoolhouse.
He started out on the XIT Ranch, working cattle as a young man. That's a detail worth sitting with for a second. The same hands that would eventually shape the future of higher education in Texas once pulled rope and rode range on one of the biggest outfits the state ever saw.
From there, Clark made his way to Add-Ran Christian University, earned his degree, and headed to Austin to work for state educational offices. He was finding his footing, moving toward something, though maybe even he didn't know exactly what yet. Then came Wichita Falls.
Clark served as school superintendent there from 1915 to 1923, nearly a decade of steady, unglamorous, essential work. And then Gainesville came calling with a similar position, and Clark said yes. Now here's where the story shifts.
It wasn't enough to run what already existed. Clark looked at Gainesville and saw what wasn't there yet. He teamed up with the Kiwanis Club, made his case to the city, and in 1924, Gainesville Junior College opened its doors.
That's the kind of thing that sounds simple in a single sentence and is anything but. Clark was recognized across state and national educational organizations, and the title that followed him was pioneer in the Texas Junior College movement. Not a bad arc for a Fort Worth boy who once worked cattle on the XIT.
What the marker says
A native of Fort Worth, Randolph Lee Clark worked as a cowboy on the XIT Ranch as a young man. After graduating from Add-Ran Christian University, he worked for state educational offices in Austin. He served as school superintendent in Wichita Falls from 1915 to 1923, when he moved to Gainesville to accept a similar position. With the help of the Kiwanis Club, he convinced the city to open Gainesville Junior College in 1924. Active in state and national educational organizations, Clark was considered a pioneer in the Texas Junior College movement. Texas Sesquicentennial 1836-1986.