A frustrated Pat Bowlen, the former owner of the Denver Broncos, called Tom Clark, an economic developer well-known for skills in getting deals across the finish line, seeking advice.
Bowlen was failing to win public backing for a tax to fund a new Mile High Stadium, so much so that he shared his plans to move the Broncos to a more supportive city, recalled Clark’s wife, Donna Alengi. The call was especially memorable to her because it came on Thanksgiving Day and delayed the family’s celebrations.
“You can’t wear your fur coat down on the field. It alienates the fans,” Clark bluntly told Bowlen, a Canadian who considered fur go-to cold-weather attire. Bowlen shed the fancy coat, became more relatable to Broncos fans and the stadium measure eventually passed.
Given Clark’s propensity to drop F-bombs with the ease of a B-52 pilot, he probably used more colorful language. But he was never one to refuse a call, or call it like he saw it. He would often postpone family plans to be there when needed — whether it was a mayor in a pickle asking for an emergency meeting or a new hire looking for mentoring time, Alengi recalls.
Clark, 75, passed away on March 19 after a decade-long battle with frontotemporal dementia, which damages the parts of the brain known for personality, behavior and language. The disease slowly stripped one of Colorado’s sharpest minds of its power, and in the final two years, it stripped one of its leading voices of speech. But despite the tough hand he was dealt, Clark never complained, Alengi said.
“You can’t imagine Denver as it is today without Tom. He had an uncanny ability to bring people together and overcome differences. Tom rebuilt Denver’s relationship with the surrounding communities and developed new partnerships that have launched us all forward. He knew that would make Denver, and all of us, stronger,” said Sen. John Hickenlooper and former Denver mayor in an emailed statement.
The list of Clark’s accomplishments is long, even if he didn’t always receive credit for them. An avid baseball fan, he was critical in securing a major league franchise for Denver and laying the groundwork for Coors Field. He helped convince Adams County officials to cede land for a new airport and was there to smooth out the numerous disagreements and roadblocks that arose.
He guided a siting compromise that allowed the Colorado Convention Center to go forward and contributed to the passage of multiple regionwide ballot measures, including FasTracks and the Scientific and Cultures Facilities District.
In one of his toughest sway jobs, he convinced the politically powerful Peter Coors, then head of Colorado’s most famous and established brewery, to support a modern bottling plant from rival Anheuser-Busch in Fort Collins. The plant was built in 1988.
The achievement he will be most remembered for, however, was convincing political leaders and economic developers across the region that they would be much better off cooperating rather than competing for jobs. Cutthroat rivalries became especially damaging after the oil and gas boom turned into a bust.
“We had to stop this range war, particularly after the economy collapsed. We were fighting over the scraps,” recalled Dick Fleming, who was Clark’s boss at the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce at the time.
Clark gathered a group of leading economic developers from across the region, known as the Crazy 8, and hammered out rules on how they would stop fighting each other and pursue economic opportunities with a united front. They formed the Metro Denver Network, an economic development consortium of 51 cities, counties, chambers of commerce and economic development organizations. Clark was put in charge of it.
“It was Tom’s genius and the fact that people trusted Tom among these various economic development groups,” said Fleming, who took the regional cooperation model with him when he led economic development efforts in St. Louis for nearly two decades.
That city had lost out on billions of dollars in federal funding for a mid-continent airport after internal feuding blocked the project. Metro Denver, because of its ability to come together, won the federal backing for Denver International Airport, Fleming said.
“Tom founded the church of regionalism, and he preached it every single day. I am so grateful to have been a student of his,” said Kelly Brough, former president and CEO of the Denver Metro Chamber.
Alengi and Clark first met while working at the chamber in the 1980s, resulting in a four-decade marriage. Early on, she recalls Clark sitting down with her ex-husband and telling him how he wanted their three children to not have to face divided holidays. The families found a way to celebrate the big events together.
Over time, the relationship grew so close that when her first husband knew he was facing death, he requested Clark give his eulogy, which he did.
Clark was born in Minnesota and moved to Colorado from Illinois. He was vice president of business development at the Denver Metro Chamber from 1985 to 1994 and led the Boulder Chamber of Commerce from 1995 to 1998 before heading up the Jefferson Economic Council and then returning to run the Metro Denver EDC from 2005 until his retirement in 2017.
Clark found a way to make chamber retreats engaging, creating skits that poked good-natured fun at everyone, Brough said. He and his staff took those skits to another level when they made videos for the EDC’s annual meetings.
In one of the earlier ones in 2010, he adopted a Darth Vader costume to avoid questions about when the region’s economy would recover. In others, he took on the title of Denver’s most interesting man, economic development guru and the godfather of regionalism.
Alengi said Clark was misdiagnosed with mild cognitive impairment initially and four years later received the more serious diagnosis. Clark decided to retire after he realized his memory was slipping as was his always-firm grip on numbers and statistics.
In his last presentation before the Metro Denver EDC in March 2017, Clark, who lived in Westminster, shared a final parody video of how he would be spending retirement.
His day starts with a late breakfast of Cocoa Puffs, several loops around the cul-de-sac in his golf cart, scribbling in an adult coloring book, playing guitar, and eating a Nutella sandwich for lunch. He makes a presentation to his grandchildren’s stuffed animals on limiting migration from New York and Texas, leaves a bogus tip about Google relocating to Boulder on a reporter’s voicemail in hopes of getting a call back and pounds away on an old typewriter.
Clark, however, left his audience with a more serious message — that the union of cooperation is always fragile, and pride is the hammer that most easily shatters it. He reminded everyone that humility is the greatest strength and that in the end it is not who gets the credit that matters, but the quality of the outcome.
“I truly am Jimmy Stewart’s character in my favorite Christmas movie. I am George Bailey. And yes, I did have a wonderful life,” Clark said in his final words to the crowd.
The Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce and Metro Denver EDC will host a gathering to celebrate Clark’s legacy and life from 5 -7 p.m. April 8. Additional details will be available at denverchamber.org.