REXBURG, Idaho — Kim B. Clark talks often of something called an inflection point. He explained it means traveling along a kind of path in life when suddenly a change occurs and the "path flips up."

Photo by Ravell Call

New BYU-Idaho President Kim B. Clark met his wife, Sue Hunt Clark, at BYU. He said she was nicknamed "St. Sue" in Boston because of her compassion.

That's what happened when it was announced in 2000 that Ricks College would become BYU-Idaho, he said. "It's an outstanding junior college and all of a sudden with a few words, the prophet of the Lord speaks and literally in that instant the trajectory for the institution changes."

That would also be a good analogy for the path of the newly inaugurated president of BYU-Idaho. On May 25, he received a telephone call from President Gordon B. Hinckley and the trajectory in his own life took a sudden shift. The dean of the Harvard Business School in Boston, Mass., turned to Rexburg, Idaho, to take the reins of the Church-owned university.

President Kim Bryce Clark officially took office Aug. 19, and in ceremonies Oct. 11 that included the president of Harvard University and the governor of Idaho, he was inaugurated by President Hinckley. (Please see article in Oct. 15, 2005, Church News, p. 6.)

"There is such a wonderful opportunity here to do things in education that will not only bless the lives of the students here but will also have influence in the world and in the Church as a whole," President Clark said sitting in his office in the Spencer W. Kimball Building on the southeastern Idaho campus.

Now he will continue to build the BYU-Idaho started by former BYU-Idaho President David A. Bednar, who was called from that position to the Quorum of the Twelve. President Bednar effected the transition of Ricks College to BYU-Idaho in 2001.

Speaking to the Church News, President Clark said he feels the weight of the responsibility to take the Church-owned university to the "next phase of development on this new trajectory that the Lord has in mind for us."

"I'm excited," the new president said. "This is really a fun opportunity. We are going places no one's ever been before. We're into uncharted territory and it's really interesting."

Heading into uncharted territory is not new for President Clark. The son of Merlin and Helen Mar Hickman Clark, he was born in Salt Lake City and moved when he was 11 years old with his family to Spokane, Wash., where he became an Eagle Scout and eventually played varsity baseball and basketball. He was reared by parents who were active in the Church and who taught their children gospel principles.

His mother, he recalled, was "a very dynamic person. She was a wonderful leader."

She consistently told her son three things as he'd leave the house for school and Church activities — "Remember who you are," "If it's worth doing, it's worth doing well," and "Be a leader."

Encouraging him to "be a leader," he said, actually meant "stand up for the things you know are right. Don't let those kids drag you around by the nose. You stick to your guns."

His dad was a "real cowboy," President Clark said, smiling. Growing up near Bryce Canyon, Merlin Clark rode the range on horseback roping and training wild horses. One of his favorite sayings, his son recalled, was "Ride the high country."

"It means to get up out of the valleys and shadows of life and ride up on the high country where you can see forever, you can dream, you can hope," President Clark related.

His parents are gone now. His father died in 2001, and his mother in 1998. But he said if he could talk to them today, he'd say, "I remembered what you taught me."

It was his parents' influence that helped a young Kim Clark through a crossroads in his life. By his senior year in high school, he had been performing for some time with a rock band in which he played the organ and his yellow Harmony, Hollowbody bass guitar. That January 1967, his band entered a citywide "Battle of the Bands," and won.

"We thought we were on our way. We were going to record music," he said. "But that night one of my friends said to me, 'You know, you're becoming two people. You're very different around this band.' "

"I realized she was right, that I was becoming two people," President Clark related. "The one person was the person who my parents thought they were raising. The other person was the budding rock star. I was arrogant, cynical, sarcastic, sort of dismissive of people. That was on a Saturday night. I thought about it and prayed about it and on Sunday night I quit (the band)."

He eventually gave away his beloved yellow bass guitar. The next six months, he said, were a "real turning point in my life." He pondered his testimony and the role of the Atonement in his life. One sleepless night, he turned to his parents for counsel. He received what he called a "powerful blessing" from his father.

That fall, he was off for his freshman year at Harvard University, after which he served in the South German Mission from 1968-1970. Upon returning home, he enrolled at BYU, where he met the "love of my life," Sue Hunt. They married in the Salt Lake Temple on June 14, 1971. Today, they have seven children and seven grandchildren.

Not long after the Clarks' marriage, they were on their way back to Harvard, where President Clark received his bachelor's, master's and doctor's degrees in economics. Other than six months in Washington, D.C., from May 1975-January 1976, during which President Clark served on the staff of Secretary of Labor John Dunlop, the Clarks have spent their married life in Boston.

In 1978, President Clark joined the faculty of the Harvard Business School, where he's been ever since. And he is quick to credit his wife for her influence in his life. Without question, he said, he would not be where he is without her. And amidst their life in Boston, she gained her own reputation. Friends nicknamed her "St. Sue," because of her compassionate nature.

Working together, they reared their family in Boston, where they were active in Church activities, and where President Clark served as a bishop. When President Clark became dean of the business school in 1995, they opted to live off-campus in Belmont, some five miles outside Boston, and use the dean's mansion for business entertainment — thus keeping their family life and business life separate.

Now living in Idaho's Snake River Valley — where the golds and reds of Boston in the fall are replaced by the brown hues and dust of potato harvest — the Clarks are forging ahead. When asked how his colleagues responded to his accepting the position here, he replied, "It's interesting. None of the people who were close to me would come up to me and say, 'Kim, what are you doing?' None of them said that because they all know why."

E-mail: julied@desnews.com