After 40 years of employment, Clark calls it a career

15 years ago

ImageHoulton Pioneer Times Photo/Joseph Cyr
CAKE CUTTING — Dale Clark cuts a piece of cake during his retirement party Friday afternoon. Clark retired as the district’s building and maintenance director after 40 years of service. His last day was Friday. By Joseph Cyr
Staff Writer

    HOULTON — After 40 years with the SAD 29 school district, Dale Clark punched his final time card Thursday.
    Clark, the building and maintenance director for SAD 29, was honored Thursday with a cake celebration at the Superintendent’s Office. He was also presented with a clock from the district during Monday night’s school board meeting.
    Clark said he made his decision to retire about a year ago.
    “I turn 65 in February and I figured it was time,” he said. “It will be tough to up and pull away from all these people, but you have to do it sometime, right?
    “Dale has been a tremendous asset for this district,” Superintendent Stephen Fitzpatrick said. “He was always a true gentlemen. He is loved by all and will certainly be missed.”
    Clark said he had no particular plans for his retirement days, other than maybe sleeping in. As maintenance director, Clark spent many earlier mornings making sure the buildings were ready for the children to arrive.
    Clark started with the school district in 1969 and quickly worked his way up the ranks.
    “When I first started I was on the night cleaning crew in 1969,” he said. “Hamilton Giberson was the superintendent at that time and after a couple of years he asked me to be the head supervisor in 1972. Here I was 26 years old and was now the head supervisor over guys who had many more years’ of experience.”
    That transition was not difficult, Clark said.
    “Every one of the guys I have worked with over the years would do anything that I would ask them to do,” he said. “It’s been just one of those things that worked out really well.”
    Clark has outlasted five superintendents during his tenure with the district.
    The job has changed somewhat over the years, particularly in the area of technology. Interestingly, Clark said he is not a fan of computers and has tried his best to minimize his exposure to them.
    “About the highest piece of tech equipment we had when I started was the old hand-crank mimeograph machines,” he said. “One thing I see about this job is it is something that really keeps your mind sharp. With all these buildings, there is an awful lot to keep track of.”
    Clark said considering the district’s buildings are in relatively good shape and close together, today’s maintenance crew has things a bit easier than when he first started.
    “But the kids will always keep you busy,” he said. “Basically it’s a job of looking after the buildings and making sure they are taken care of. When I first started out, we had a lot of the older buildings, like Lambert, Bowdoin and Roger Randall. I was at all those different schools quite a bit.”
ImageHoulton Pioneer Times Photo/Joseph Cyr
THANKS FROM THE BOARD — SAD 29 Superintendent Stephen Fitzpatrick, far left, congratulates Dale Clark on his 40 years of service to the district Monday evening. Joining Clark are his wife, Myrna, and board chairman Sandra Wilkins (far right).

    Seeing generations pass through the halls of the SAD 29 buildings has been one of Clark’s fondest memories. He will also miss the daily interaction with staff, students and product distributors.
     “I’m involved with an awful lot of people, all the contractors and guys from the DEP,” he said. “I will miss discussing things with them.”
    Writing humorous captions on Clark’s monkey calendars became something of a tradition at the school. Houlton High School Principal Marty Bouchard had the honor of writing the final caption for Clark. The calendar for January featured the caption, “Listen son, Jan. 28 is my last day and we have to talk about you carrying on my legacy. Don’t forget — always agree with Marty, even if you may not.”
    “Every year there was a monkey calendar that would come out,” Clark said. “Somebody was always writing something about someone. It started out just among the custodians, but then different people kind of got into it writing funny captions about us.”