Clark, Randolph Lee (1871-1941)

Clark's bigger firsts came in Wichita Falls. The Handbook of Texas says that as superintendent there he started night classes for Black students and, in 1922, a bilingual program: a two-grade school for the children of Spanish-speaking migrant workers, with bilingual teachers, because those children were getting little real education. The same year he founded Wichita Falls Junior College inside the public school system, and a bond issue of $850,000 paid for its building. He took that model to Gainesville, where the junior college opened in 1924. Clark died in Cisco in 1941.

What the plaque says

Clark, Randolph Lee (1871-1941) A native of Fort Worth, Randolph Lee Clark worked as a cowboy on the XIT Ranch as a young man. After graduating from Add-Ran Christian University, he worked for state educational offices in Austin. He served as school superintendent in Wichita Falls from 1915 to 1923, when he moved to Gainesville to accept a similar position. With the help of the Kiwanis Club, he convinced the city to open Gainesville Junior College in 1924. Active in state and national educational organizations, Clark was considered a pioneer in the Texas Junior College movement. Texas Sesquicentennial 1836-1986.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Great Hanging Memorial — 1.5 mi
  Two granite monuments in a Gainesville park, dedicated in 2014, for the Cooke County men the Confederate militia hanged in October 1862 on suspicion of Unionism.
• Stonewall Saloon Museum — 21 mi
  Saint Jo's first permanent building, a stone saloon of 1873 with rooms upstairs for trail drovers, in a town named, the story goes, as a joke on a founder who did not drink.
• Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge — 25 mi
  A 1946 refuge on the Big Mineral Arm of Lake Texoma, laid over land bought for Denison Dam and the site of the vanished railroad town of Hagerman, now a winter stop for geese.

More markers nearby

• Hubert H. Moss — steps away
• Gainesville Junior College — steps away
• Moffett Park — 0.7 mi
• Cooke County, C.S.A./2nd Frontier Regiment — 0.7 mi