James Clark, who, served five U.S. presidents in the Executive Office of the President, and was the deputy director of the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, died Aug. 6, 2019, at the age of 95.
Clark was at Oberlin College when he enlisted in the Army, and he was wounded in combat with Gen. Patton’s 3rd Army. Returning to Oberlin, he graduated in 1948. A member of the first MPA class at Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School, he graduated in 1950. He then moved to Washington, D.C., committed to public service.
For 20 years he served in the President’s Office of Management and Budget, responsible for financial management, planning, development, and coordination of policy proposals, and administrative oversight for a variety of national priorities.
In 1970 Clark became director of strategic planning and product development for the Chase Manhattan Bank. In 1982 he returned to Princeton as deputy director of the PPPL, where for eight years he managed the administrative operations of the largest nuclear-fusion research lab in the United States.
Clark’s wife of 62 years, Margaret Custin Archer, died shortly after he did, on Nov. 20, 2019. He is survived by two daughters, including Margaret *88, and five grandchildren.
Graduate alumni memorials are prepared by the APGA.