Atlanta — July 8, 1997

Regent S. William Clark, Jr., M.D., was elected chair of the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia. Regent Clark assumed office at the July 8, 1997 meeting of the Board of Regents and will serve a one-year term as chair, through June 30, 1998.

Clark, a resident of Waycross, Georgia, was appointed to the Board of Regents in 1992 by Governor Zell Miller. He served as vice chair for the Board from July 1, 1996 through June 30, 1997.

A doctor of Ophthalmology, Clark has been in private practice since 1956. He also served as chief of staff, chairman of the executive committee and chief of surgery at Memorial Hospital in Waycross.

He has been extensively involved in professional organizations related to his practice, including the American Board of Ophthalmology and the American Academy of Ophthalmology. Clark has served as president of the Georgia Society of Ophthalmology and the Medical Association of Georgia. He served for 17 years as a delegate to the American Medical Association.

On the local level, Clark has been a member of the board of directors for the First Federal Savings and Loan Association of Waycross, and a organizing founder and member of the board of directors of the First Georgia Savings Bank of Brunswick and the Waycross Bank and Trust. Clark has been active in the Waycross Rotary Club and Jaycees. He was an active supporter of scouting, having served the Okefenokee Area Council at all levels from scoutmaster to council president and on the state level as committee chairman, vice president and state president for two terms.

Among Clark’s numerous awards are the Silver Beaver and the Silver Antelope, awarded by the Boy Scouts of America for his local and regional service to scouting; the Florence McDonnell People of Vision Award by the Georgia Society to Prevent Blindness; and the Distinguished Alumnus Award given by the Emory Eye Alumni Association.

Clark is a veteran of World War II who served in the Eighth Air Force and was a prisoner of war in Germany for five months. He earned an associate of arts degree from the University of Florida, and both a bachelor of science degree in medicine and an M.D. degree from Emory University, Atlanta. Clark served his surgical internship and residency in ophthalmology at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta.

Clark is married to the former Susan Lott. The couple have two sons.

The Board of Regents is a constitutional body that governs and manages the University System of Georgia, comprised of 34 public colleges and universities. Currently, more than 206,000 students are enrolled in System institutions and there are more than 30,000 faculty and staff members.

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