Mount Vernon Nazarene, 1987
• 1986 Academic All-America® Second Team
• 1987 Academic All-America® Second Team
Tom Clark was inducted into the CoSIDA Academic All-America® Hall of Fame in 2009.
A two-time CoSIDA Academic All-America® selection, Tom Clark graduated from Mount Vernon Nazarene in 1987 with a degree in Computer Science and Mathematics.
The chapter president of the Alpha Chi National Honor Society, he graduated with a 3.84 G.P.A. During his three-year college basketball career for the Cougars, he scored 1,192 points and ranks 24th on the Cougars’ career scoring list. As a senior, he was named first team All-Mid-Ohio Conference after averaging 17.8 points per game. An outstanding long-range shooter, he shot 50.4 percent from three-point range to set a school record that still stands. He set that record in the first year that the three-point basket became a rule.
An honorable mention All-MOC pick as a sophomore and junior, he was also named to the NAIA District 22 team. Selected as an Academic All-America® performer in 1986 and 1987, he was named as the winner of the Emil S. Liston Award in 1986 as the NAIA’s top junior basketball player in terms of athletic achievement, academic success and leadership. For his career, he averaged 15.3 points and ranks among the Cougars’ all-time leaders in steals, assists and free throw percentage.
In 1994, Clark earned a Master’s degree in Computer Science from Portland State University and graduated with a perfect 4.0 GPA. Since earning his Master’s degree, he has enjoyed a remarkable career with IBM. Currently, the Chief Architect for Storage Software at IBM, he was honored as the winner of IBM’s Distinguished Engineer Award in 2002.
The owner of four U.S. patents with eight others pending, Clark is a technical executive leading the architecture and design of IBM’s storage software products, including the areas of backup/restore, storage management and data archive. At IBM, the hardware and software division is a multi-billion dollar business.
From 1991 to 2001, he was an executive at Informix, which was purchased by IBM.
He has been very active in his community, serving as a volunteer basketball coach for Open Door
Christian Academy and Pusch Ridge Christian Academy. He also took mission trips to the Phillipines with Athletes for Christ team in 1985 and 1987.