Originally published in the Connector 2023.
U-M alumnus and businessman Stephen S. Clark (B.S. `74, M.B.A. `76) says the Shapiro Undergraduate Library saved his college career by providing a bulwark against the temptations and distractions of college life.
The temptations were the Village Bell, a campus watering hole on South University (back when the drinking age was 18), and the persistence of his fraternity brothers, eager for his company there. With the library as a destination, though, he could, as he says, “slip away after dinner and get my work done.”
That’s why decades later, when Clark began to consider donating to the university, he looked to the library, and why he committed to supporting the Shapiro Library’s third floor conversion (the Clark Commons) into a place for students to find resources and refuge. This most recent gift is the largest in the library’s history.
His first transformational gift to the library in 2011, toward the creation of the Clark Library, brought together the library’s map collection, government information center, and geographical data services in a welcoming space equipped to facilitate exploration and discovery within and among these areas.
Clark, an inventor and chairman and CEO (now retired) of Dwyer Instruments, Inc., understands and appreciates the library’s ambition for the transformation. He also knows that while the particular temptations of college life may have changed — the Village Bell is long gone — distraction itself is a constant.
“I spent a lot of time in the library, and my hope is to provide students with a pleasant and comfortable space for collaboration and study,” Clark said. And the library is the ideal space, Clark notes, because it “serves everyone at the university, and not just one school or college.”
His motive to give is straightforward. He wants to “improve the experience for current and future students.”