THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, June 2, 1996 TAG: 9605310217
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: 12 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY ELIZABETH THIEL, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 146 lines
In the drab waiting room of the Chesapeake Social Services Department, an irritated young woman sat watching the growing lines of applicants for welfare.
``I hate this place,'' she said, to no one in particular.
Social Services Director W. Douglas Clark wouldn't be surprised or offended to hear her critique.
``Most of the time when people come in here, they don't want to be here,'' said Clark, who shows an empathy that's almost unexpected from someone whose comfortable office is two floors and a locked door apart from the masses, and whose personal life is universes away.
``They don't want us involved in their lives,'' he said. ``But they have no choice, obviously, or they wouldn't be here.''
It's been Clark's job to see that they get help.
Clark, 67, who has headed the city's social services programs for 38 years, retired Friday.
He became the last person to lead the Social Services Department in its role as a separate entity. City Council voted Tuesday to make it a division within a larger Human Services Department, which will include other agencies such as Juvenile Detention and the Chesapeake Community Corrections Program.
Clark's position was eliminated; the new leader hired will supervise the larger Human Services organization.
``He certainly left a foundation upon which his successor can build,'' said Mayor William E. Ward, who presented Clark with a service award at Tuesday's council meeting. ``His leadership will be missed, and will be hard to follow.''
Acting City Manager Clarence V. Cuffee said Clark's supervision has been remarkable in some ways.
``I never have gotten a complaint from the community about unfair treatment of clients,'' Cuffee said. ``In the public sector, you don't see that very much.''
Kathy G. Goldberg, an assistant director who worked under Clark for 25 years, said, ``One thing he always said to keep us focused was that the staff was here to serve the citizens of Chesapeake. . . . He sincerely meant it.''
Goldberg will serve as interim director until the new Human Services director is hired.
Her task will be to help the department's workers cope with the departure of the only leader many of them have ever known.
Clark started in 1958 as superintendent of public welfare for Norfolk County, after stints as a psychiatric social worker for the Army and a teacher for Norfolk County schools.
He continued on as superintendent of the Social Services Bureau, when the county merged with South Norfolk in 1963 to form the city of Chesapeake. Along the way, his duties as superintendent included acting as the city's chief juvenile probation officer.
His long tenure has been one constant in a business where not much stays the same; the Social Services Department, perhaps more than any other government agency, is caught up in societal and political change.
Clark has watched it; he has his own opinions about much of it.
Although his job as social services director does not allow him to set policy - he must leave that to legislators - he's tried over the years to make some changes that would help the community.
Many of his efforts have been for kids.
Soon after he became welfare bureau superintendent in 1958, for example, he noticed that Norfolk County had no appropriate place to house juvenile delinquents; bad kids were just put in the women's section of the county's regular jail.
Clark persuaded the county to let him build its first juvenile detention center. When it opened, the center housed 10 boys and five girls, Clark said. Now the Tidewater Detention Home on Albemarle Drive houses about 100 kids, he said.
In the early '60s, he organized a monthlong regional phone drive to recruit couples to apply to adopt one of the many troubled or disabled children who otherwise had little chance of finding a home. About 68 children were placed, he said.
His department also started the city's first drug education program, taught in the schools.
He worked with his counterparts in Virginia Beach to establish the Pendleton Child Service Center, a school for children with behavioral problems.
``He always had a feel for the needs of the citizens,'' said Goldberg.
Mary Jane Brockwell, an assistant director who has worked with Clark for 33 years, said the department will miss Clark.
``I feel he's been a person of vision,'' she said.
Clark couldn't have imagined the changes his department would experience during his watch.
When he took the helm in 1958, he had 16 staff members. His annual budget was $300,000.
Now he's got a staff of about 210 workers and an annual budget of nearly $80 million. At any given time, the department handles an estimated 21,000 active cases.
He estimates that every year, his case workers handle 2,000 reports of child abuse, and about 300 cases of felony abuse like sexual molestation. Back when he started, his department's duties didn't even include handling child abuse.
He's watched the public's opinions about welfare vacillate from acceptance to condemnation.
It's tough for him to leave at a time when state and federal legislators are toying with various ways to change the rules for people on welfare.
Clark said he agrees that it's time for a new way of thinking about public assistance.
``We need to get people back to work,'' he said.
But he's concerned that legislators will not give social service agencies enough money to help people become really self-sufficient - money to pay for transportation, day care, education and job training programs.
A woman with three young children with no car and no money would find it almost impossible to travel across town for a minimum-wage job, he said.
Welfare reform is ``not going to happen overnight,'' he said. ``It's something we have to develop. It's going to be expensive, but it's going to pay off in the long run.
``What the General Assembly and the Congress forget is that people come to this office. Some mornings we open the door and we have 500 to 600 people needing assistance. We need the resources to deal with it.''
Clark's fought that battle for 38 years. He figures it's now time to let someone else take over.
He's looking forward to spending more time with his wife, Jean, his two grown daughters and his three grandchildren.
``I'd like to be 20 years younger,'' he said. ``I'd love to be able to face the challenges that this department is going to face.
``But there comes a time when you have to go.'' ILLUSTRATION: [Cover, Color photo]
SOMEONE WHO CARED
Photo by GARY C. KNAPP
Douglas Clark, right, acknowledges Mayor William Ward's tribute to
his 38 years of service. He is retiring as director of Chesapeake
Social Services.
Photo by L. TODD SPENCER
Social Services Director W. Douglas Clark packs up his office.
Clark, 67, who has headed the city's social services programs for 38
years, retired Friday.
``Most of the time when people come in here, they don't want to be
here,'' said Clark, who shows an empathy that's almost unexpected
from someone whose office is two floors and a locked door apart from
the masses, and whose personal life is universes away.
Photo by GARY C. KNAPP
Emotion wells up in Social Services Director W. Douglas Clark as he
leaves after being given an award for his 38 years of service.
Photo by L. TODD SPENCER
Kathy Goldberg
Interim director
KEYWORDS: PROFILE by CNB