Clark McKercher Simms ’53

Mac died July 12, 2019, in Wells, Maine. He was born in Montclair, N.J., and graduated from Montclair Academy.

At Princeton he was a member of Charter Club, director of the Princeton Summer Camp, and president of the Student Christian Association. His thesis was “The Influence of W.N. Whitehead on Modern Religious Philosophy.”

After serving three years in the Army, including 16 months in Korea, Mac earned a master’s degree from Yale and began a teaching career at Newton High School in Massachusetts. In 1959 Mac moved to The Gunnery School in Connecticut, where he taught English and served as assistant headmaster while also coaching the debate and crew and a number of other activities.

After 19 years at The Gunnery, Mac moved to the Oakwood Friends School in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., where he was chairman of the English, history, and religion departments and where he served as headmaster from 1980 to 1988. A colleague wrote that Mac was “a progressive educator, always keeping us focused on the student … (and) on the cutting edge of curriculum development and pedagogy.”

Always interested in the world of politics, Mac ran for State Senate in Connecticut in 1970 and served as a McCarthy delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1968.

Mac is survived by his wife, Chase; and four children of his blended family, Jonathan, William, Amanda, and Leonardo, and their families.