Alice Clark, professor, tour guide
Memorial services will be held Wednesday, Sept. 7, for Alice Jean Clark, 79, of Center City, a retired college professor and tour guide, who died of lymphoma Tuesday, July 26, at Penn Hospice at Rittenhouse.
Memorial services will be held Wednesday, Sept. 7, for Alice Jean Clark, 79, of Center City, a retired college professor and tour guide, who died of lymphoma Tuesday, July 26, at Penn Hospice at Rittenhouse.
Dr. Clark earned bachelor and master of arts degrees and a doctorate in English literature from Temple University. She taught English at Temple for 10 years before joining the faculty at what is now Delaware Valley University in Doylestown in 1981.
"Alice brought a touch of class that all of us needed," said James Miller, an emeritus professor of biology at Delaware Valley. "To the students, she made literature accessible, showing them that F. Scott Fitzgerald has relevance to young people ... and that even Faulkner can be approachable."
For nine years, Dr. Clark chaired the English department. When dealing with faculty politics, Miller said, she always kept her sense of humor.
Jun Iwata, a former student and friend, came to the university from São Paulo, Brazil, in 1987, with English skills all but nonexistent, he told Delaware Valley University Magazine. Dr. Clark helped.
"She was my professor of English 101," he said. "She was very kind and patient, and was willing to spend as much time as I needed in her office to go over homework and the results of exams."
While teaching at Delaware Valley, Dr. Clark restored a farmhouse in Bedminster with her husband, Glenn Heath. After the two divorced in 1992, she moved to Center City.
Dr. Clark retired from Delaware Valley in 1998, but didn't stay idle. She was a volunteer docent at the Philadelphia Museum of Art before becoming a paid guide for Centipede Tours in 2000.
For more than 15 years, Dr. Clark, dressed in colonial costume, guided schoolchildren and adults through the streets of Old City and Society Hill and into the historic buildings on Independence Mall.
"My image of Alice will always be of her leading tours with her bright red parasol," said Centipede guide Evy Simon.
"Alice was petite and pretty, and the flowered petticoat, ruffled sleeves and mob cap suited her," said Centipede Tours president Virginia Roberts.
Roberts said she received letters from clients describing "the delightful way Alice conducted a tour, and how she was informative and a joy to be with."
During the Christmas season, Dr. Clark invited the guides to her sunlit apartment.
"The carpet was white, the furniture was white, even the cat was white," Simon said.
Though cultivated and genteel, Dr. Clark was no shrinking violet, said Armond Scavo, her partner of 20 years.
When she lived in Bedminster, she grew vegetables for sale to local markets. Later, she biked along the Wissahickon Creek and took up competitive ballroom dancing. She enjoyed opera, Thai food, European travel, movies, and discovering hidden Philadelphia neighborhoods, Scavo said.
Dr. Clark grew up in Glenside and graduated from Abington High School. She worked at Curtis Publishing Co. before going to college.
Besides her partner, Dr. Clark is survived by a sister; two nephews; and her former husband.
A memorial service will be at noon Wednesday, Sept. 7, at Christ Church, 20 N. American St. Interment of her ashes will follow in Christ Church Memorial Garden.
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