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 Los Angeles Campus honors beloved and recently deceased Maintenance Director This past June, the Los Angeles Campus lost a remarkable, much-beloved staff member, Dax Clark, who during his seven years with us had served as Administrative Assistant in the Rabbinic School and later Director of Maintenance. Only 33 when he died, Dax left a unique mark on the campus, devoting himself in his last three years to the needs of the building with love and humor, urging the campus community to save energy in all the ways he could think of, and to show respect for our books and holy spaces by the way we handled the books and other objects that filled them. The community paid its respects to his memory in a Memorial Service Thursday, August 30, in which Dean Steven Windmueller and Rabbi Richard Levy reiterated the remarks they had sent to be read at the funeral in Rochester, NY on July 1. Dean Windmueller also read a letter written by President David Ellenson and Dr. Lewis Barth, former Dean of the L.A. Campus. A rabbinic student wrote a musical piece based on the energy chart Dax had placed in the elevator to alert people to how much energy each elevator rise expended, and other students integrated some of Dax's exhortations into the service. Dax's widow, Kerri Clark, and his parents, Rodney and Sharon Clark, his sister, Robin Finnman, and friends were in attendance as well, and Joan Spearman, Director of Operations, read Dax's father's eulogy from the funeral. Two large trees were placed in the lobby in Dax's memory, and four Japanese maples were planted on the lawn as well. Videos of Dax's young life were played during a lunch attended by the community. It was a fitting tribute for remarkable young man who loved this College very much. Founded in 1875, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion is the nation's oldest institution of higher Jewish education and the academic, spiritual, and professional leadership development center of Reform Judaism. HUC-JIR educates men and women for service to American and world Jewry as rabbis, cantors, educators, and communal service professionals, and offers graduate and post-graduate programs to scholars of all faiths. With centers of learning in Cincinnati, Jerusalem, Los Angeles, and New York, HUC-JIR's scholarly resources comprise renowned library and museum collections, the American Jewish Archives, biblical archaeology excavations, research institutes and centers, and academic publications. HUC-JIR invites the community to an array of cultural and educational programs which illuminate Jewish history, identity, and contemporary creativity and which foster interfaith and multiethnic understanding. Visit us at www.huc.edu |
