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Supporting the Colorado Engineer Magazine’s Role of imagining new opportunities for the profession

As student journalists in the field of engineering, we at the Colorado Engineer Magazine have the unique opportunity to share stories of CU engineers who shape our community through their expertise and contributions to the field. 

Our work is supported by a board of directors that believes in the power of journalism in promoting innovation. Members of the board bring their unique insight from their personal experiences to help us shape each issue.

Former board member John Clark studied at CU, graduating with a bachelors of Civil Engineering and Business Management in 1964. After graduating, Clark spent his career in water management, where he developed a passion for incorporating sustainability into the engineering process. 

Clark explains, “When you talk about sustainability, [the] scope is much broader than designing beams and columns. You start to get a mindset about the whole thing, whether it can sustain itself through the engineering process. You are building another dimension into everything. I always used to tell my younger engineers that the project has four dimensions, length, width, height, and time.” Adding the fourth dimension of time accounts for the performance of a design over a given time period.

 Clark’s extensive work in the industry has made him passionate  about the need for an engineering curriculum that prepares students to address climate change.

“Right now civil is the closest that we get to [a sustainability specialty] because we have a water/wastewater element where we treat waste. That’s the Civils. It’s important work,” he said. “I get excited about [sustainability], I really do. It’s a real challenge…[solutions] have got to be global, got to be a mindset. That can all start at the university level or below. [It is] essential that the profession goes back to the education process, maybe even [creating] another engineering speciality: sustainability engineers—why not?”

Our publication is able to address relevant topics such as sustainability in large part due to John’s father, Mel Clark. A former editor-in-chief, Mel Clark established a fund to keep the magazine publishing after the magazine was disrupted by the Vietnam  War. 

In his time at CU, Mel Clark earned his degree in Chemical Engineering 1937, then landed a job in the midst of the Great Depression with a publishing firm.

“The job that he obtained with McGraw Hill Publishing in New York was directly because he had the knowledge and the experience of the publishing business. He never forgot that. He was so grateful for that opportunity to work on [the Colorado Engineer Magazine],” said John Clark of his father.

At McGraw Hill, Mel combined his knowledge of both chemical engineering and writing to develop a new publication, Chemical Engineering.

John Clark volunteered to fill his father’s position on the CEM board to support the magazine in “trying to foster a meaningful dialogue with the readers.”

Clark elaborates, “The human mind is capable of grasping a multitude of things that can’t be seen…they’re visions. We could add more dimensions…the CEM is a vehicle to doing that.”

One vision Clark has in particular is engineers using their technical knowledge to communicate to legislators, stakeholders, and the general public by acting as “citizen professionals…builders and maintainers of the quality of life, not just in the US, but globally.”

Clark explains, “Within that technical realm…political actions [with] technical background … could be [a] tremendous help in negotiating solutions. Engineers could be involved as citizens, and play a dual role in solutions. We can do a lot, but we have to have the mindset, and I believe that can be fostered and taught in education.”

We at the Colorado Engineer Magazine thank John Clark for his time and input, and Mel Clark for his commitment to continuing the legacy of this publication.