Newsmaker: Harvard Dean Puts Family First

“It wasn’t until I got home from my mission that the academic side of me started to blossom,” says Kim B. Clark of his 28-year association with Harvard University. Not only did he earn bachelor, master, and doctorate degrees at Harvard and become a member of the faculty, but he was recently appointed dean of the Harvard Business School.

The author of 12 books, Brother Clark was described in a Boston Globe article as a “scholar’s scholar.” The article continued, “Even among the world-class academicians that make up the Harvard business faculty, colleagues say he is a first-rate, productive researcher and intellect.”

The son of a small-town cowboy, who was the first in his family to attend college, and of a mother who encouraged her son to memorize and recite poems and scriptures, Brother Clark values his family above his job. “The work I am involved in is so engrossing that it can entice me to work way past the time I should be home,” he says. “But I believe that no matter how enticing the work is, there’s no more important place for a husband and father to be in the evening than at home.”

In fact, Brother Clark’s example has influenced a number of his colleagues to spend more time with their families. “Over the long pull, people will be more productive, more effective, and will do better quality work when the whole person is healthy,” he observes.

The parents of seven children, Brother Clark and his wife, Sue, are members of the Belmont Ward, Boston Massachusetts Stake, where he serves as ward executive secretary.