SECTION NEWS
Remembering Engineer and
Longtime Section Member
David Clark
By Lynn Lipinski
DAVID CLARK, A FREQUENT SOURCE magazine
contributor, longtime CA-NV Section member and
former chair of its Management Development and
Leadership Committee (2016–18) and Workforce Development
Committee (2016–17), died October 17 of COVID-19.
An accomplished engineer and manager, Clark gained
satisfaction and purpose by giving back to the water profession
through the mentorship of young professionals. In a recent
Spotlight article on the Section’s website, Clark talked about
the joy he received from interacting with those just starting
in their careers. “I fully agree with veteran John Holmes that
there is no exercise better for the heart than reaching down
and lifting people up,” Clark said.
“David was a tremendous friend to the Section, and his
work was deeply appreciated by so many
in our community,” said Sue Mosburg, CA-NV
Section executive director. “He touched
the lives of many of our young professionals
with his work on our flash mentoring and
other leadership development programs.”
He worked at Metropolitan Water Dis-trict
of Southern California for 27 years, most
recently as its design section manager since
2018. Among his accomplishments were de-veloping
Metropolitan’s Seismic Resilience
David K. Clark mentors young professionals at a 2017 CA-NV AWWA Section flash mentoring
session. Photos courtesy of Barbara Rogers and Jean Ha Kushi.
Strategy, managing the seismic upgrade of Metropolitan’s Union
Station Headquarters Building and leading the Engineering Ser-vices
Group’s efforts on Metropolitan’s Integrated Area Studies.
He worked to cultivate the next generation of water leaders
by spearheading the Engineering Services Group’s workforce
development and succession planning initiative. “His passion
for developing and sustaining engineering’s workforce will be
one of the significant legacy accomplishments that he leaves
with our organization as we address the challenges ahead of
us,” wrote John Bednarski, Metropolitan’s chief engineer, in a
memo to staff about Clark’s passing.
Clark joined AWWA and the CA-NV Section in 1995 when
he began his career in water. According to an interview he gave
to the Section for a profile, he paid his dues, attended a few con-ferences
and read the publications, but only became active in 2015
after presenting at one of its conferences. He chaired the Leader-ship
Development Committee, expanding his network and his
interests in working with the Section’s Young Professionals.
He began serving as a mentor during the Section’s flash
mentoring conference sessions in 2017, aimed at building rela-tionships
by pairing those at the beginning of the careers with
more seasoned members. Making connections, before, during
and after the conferences, he told SOURCE in 2019, was natural
and immensely satisfying. A generous volunteer, he helped or-ganize
the flash mentoring sessions in subsequent years. “The
extra work required was more than balanced by . . . a new set of
friends and valuable professional relationships,” he said.
“He always wanted to help people as much as he could.
People will tell you that was one of his best qualities,” said Met-ropolitan
Engineering Planning Section Manager John Sham-ma,
whose friendship with Dave dates back 30 years, when they
were both studying for master’s degrees in engineering at USC.
“He really cared about the young engineers. He was one of the
people who structured the Career Launch so all the young en-gineers
could feel more at home at Metropolitan.”
Sepideh Shirkhani, the Section’s Utility Management
Division chair, worked with Clark at Metropolitan and recalls
his deep interest in helping develop the next generation of
engineers and leaders. “David was the strongest advocate of
women engineers and was a major contributor to the formation
of the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) at Metropolitan,”
said Shirkhani, who is an associate engineer.
Clark earned his master’s in environmental engineering
at University of Southern California Viterbi School of Engi-neering
and his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering
from California Polytechnic State University. Before joining
Metropolitan, he worked at the Los Angeles Department of
Water and Power as a project engineer from 1984 to 1997.
Clark is survived by his wife Carolina, daughters Karen
and Kathleen and son James. Contributions can be made in
his memory to the AWWA David Clark Memorial Scholarship
at https://form.jotform.com/213005200816035. S
Lynn Lipinski is the editor of SOURCE Magazine.
12 SOURCE winter 2022 www.ca-nv-awwa.org 12
/213005200816035
