Ford Clark revitalizes memory of his brother, mom – thepostathens.com
The strum of an electric guitar or an angelic piano solo enlivened Monica and Max Clark. For the mother-son duo, music consumed their lives, inspiring family members, friends and, most recently, Ohio University Bobcats.
“I always grappled with this idea of, what do you do with grief?” Ford Clark, a 2016 OU alumnus, said.
Ford Clark, who lost his mother, Monica Clark, and older brother, Max Clark, to suicide, launched the Not Too Late for Me Scholarship Fund in collaboration with the Chaddock + Morrow College of Fine Arts. The scholarship, created in their honor, supports non-traditional undergraduate Bobcats in the College of Fine Arts pursuing a degree in music and facing financial need.
“I wanted to do something special, something to remember the positive parts of them,” Ford Clark said. “I think that when you lose someone in that way, that's what they become remembered for, right?”
Monica Clark’s story began in Houma, Louisiana, where she first discovered the piano and quickly “captured the hearts” of those who listened to her play. As detailed on the scholarship’s website, after moving to New Orleans, she explored her passion for music, but also faced “mental health and substance abuse challenges.”
She studied piano pedagogy at the University of Southwestern Louisiana, but chose to leave school just shy of graduating to start a family with her husband, Peter Clark. They married in 1986, and he said their love story was nothing short of special.
“I went out one night and everywhere I went, this one woman was just there,” Peter Clark said. “I said to her, just to be funny, ‘Are you following me?’ and she said, ‘Yes.’ … I loved her all my life.”
As the couple began their lives together and welcomed their sons to the world, the family lived all over the country. Places like North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Arizona and various cities in Ohio were considered home. Peter Clark said his older son quickly adopted his mother’s passion for music.
“He could pick up any instrument and figure out how to play it,” he said.
Ford Clark has fond memories of listening to his brother play.
“I remember when he got his first electric guitar when we were living in Arizona,” Ford Clark said. “He would play it all the time … I could always hear him playing. He loved the music of the 1970s.”
Ford Clark said growing up alongside his brother, despite the struggles he faced later in life, shaped his childhood, high school experience in Columbus and time as a Bobcat.
“He was such a notorious figure in our high school … he had his own problems and I wanted people to remember a version of him that was the best version,” Ford Clark said. “Before Max went down a path that wasn’t so good, there was a very sweet child that was energetic and engaged … and you lose that when people struggle with addiction.”
With the establishment of the scholarship, Ford Clark aims to emphasize the importance of pursuing higher education, particularly for those in the arts. He said the name of the scholarship was inspired by an interaction with his grandmother, “Grandma Maude,” who is his lifelong pen-pal.
“Two weeks before Max passed away, she sent me a letter in the mail, and it said, ‘Try to be more understanding of your brother … I oftentimes wish I could go back and be more understanding of my siblings, too late,’” Ford Clark said.
Due to their father’s job, Ford Clark said his older brother was technically his guardian, and occasionally, it was hard to navigate living together. The letter not only referenced Grandma Maude’s relationship with her brother, whom she hadn’t spoken to in 15 years, but also Max and Ford Clark’s connection.
“When we went to Max’s funeral, my grandma was there and so was her brother,” Ford Clark said. “I went up to her and I gave her a little card. I said, ‘It's too late for me. It's not too late for you.’ And she and her brother made up at the funeral.”
Oct. 27 marked the 10-year anniversary of Max Clark’s passing. Logan Dotson, a close friend of the family, met the brothers after a high school football game. Dotson said Max Clark was “different from anyone I had met in my life,” so watching the scholarship come to be was remarkable.
“I knew Max very well and I just know how much it would have meant to him that Ford was still doing something for him 10 years later,” Dotson said. “I don't think Max knew that anyone would do something so thoughtful for him. I am blown away by Ford.”
Dotson said the scholarship not only keeps the memories of Monica and Max Clark alive but also allows students to feel included and seen.
“Non-traditional students, let’s say non-traditional people in general, are forced into a space … because societally that is where they are supposed to be,” she said. “This benefits people being true to who they are … I think it's good for all of us.”
Ford Clark said he recently raised $25,000 to fully endow the fund and award students immediately. He said he wrote to his grandma about the news and is grateful for the support from family, friends and the OU community.
“One day it will be too late, and that's why I wanted to call this the Not Too Late for Me Scholarship Fund,” he said. “That's the point of it, right? The whole point is it's never too late to achieve your dreams, to try something new, to open a new door.”
gn875322@ohio.edu
