They say the greatest form of charity is when the recipient has no idea where the help has come from.
A couple minutes with Bill Clark is all that is necessary to see that this longtime Clarkston philanthropist would prefer to stay in the shadows. Unfortunately for him, Bill’s deeds and charitable endeavors are too numerous for him to operate in anonymity. However he will try to deflect his due onto others until the end.
‘I think it’s tremendous, when there is something going on that benefits people, the support of the community and the people, it’s phenomenal,? said Clark. ‘An example, something I wasn’t really involved in outside of writing a little check, was the spray park. The same thing with ‘Open Your Heart for Lighthouse.? We basically just approached community business people and had very successful fund-raisers and nice parties and good times, and it’s just because of the caring generosity of the people in the community.?
Clark and his wife Gwen, a breast cancer survivor, are longtime participants in Relay for Life. Their caring for others resonates in one another.
‘Gwen’s a nurse. She worked for 28 years at St. Josephs. To be a nurse you have to have a basic desire to help people and that was always natural for Gwen,? said Clark, who continued with a mischievous glint in his eye of a man wanting to sleep on the couch. He recanted the story of how the couple was wed. ‘Her dad was my football coach in grade school and I wanted to play first string. I said ‘Coach, I’ll do anything if you let me play first string.? So I had to marry his daughter.?
Lucky for Bill, Gwen is in Florida at the moment. When she is in Michigan though, the couple enjoy working side by side to help others.
‘It’s nice that we are able to do some of the same things together. With Lighthouse it’s nice because we get to work on some of the same projects. It makes it nice getting to spend that time together,? said Clark.
While he downplays his personal clout, Bill has done a lot for the Clarkston community over the years by ‘writing a little check? and ‘approaching a couple business people.? The office he runs, Coldwell Banker Schweitzer Real Estate, has raised thousands of dollars for local charities including Clarkston Lighthouse, Habitat for Humanity, Toys for Tots and Hunger Walks.
The common theme of all Clark’s charitable works is that he knows the power of a group.
‘No charitable endeavor works without the support of many people and the help of many people,? said Clark. ‘The board of realtors selected me as their humanitarian of the year for 2004. It was kind of funny because all I do is say ‘Yeah, okay, why don’t we go ahead and do that? and the agents here are so phenomenal they just jump on it and run with it. I get some of the credit and I do very little of the work.?
Clark’s proud smile threatened to grow past the boundaries of his face when he related the story of how his workers raised $10,000 in a month so that one of their own can receive a kidney transplant. Moments such as this prove good companies and good people start at the top, and Clark’s trickle down effect is evident.
The basis for Clark’s charitable endeavors is found in his hard work in the private sector. He cofounded Clarkston Real Estate Services (later sold to Coldwell) in 1989 and in 18 months watched the office become number one in market share. In 1999, along with eight others, he helped found the Clarkston State Bank and continues to sit on the board.
And all of his success is from a career he never anticipated.
‘I’d always worked since I was 12. I came home after freshman year and there were no jobs. The plants weren’t hiring. It was the summer of ?68, construction was down. I went back to the grocery stores I used to work at in high school and there were no job openings,? said Clark. ‘My Dad was in commercial real estate and he said, ‘Why don’t you get your real estate license so don’t waste the summer.? I did that and I like it and I’ve been doing it ever since.?
Having quit school early due to his runaway success in real estate, Clark worried about setting an example for his children when they were in high school. Now that Stacey and Joe are college graduates the pressure is gone.
‘It was one of those cases where you knew what you were good at. By the end of my junior year I had completed my graduate realtors institute designation. I had taken all of the accounting, finance, law, insurance and real estate classes they offered at Western Michigan University and I was making real good money selling real estate,? said Clark. ‘I’m the only non-college graduate in my family.?
No matter how many people sing his praises, Clark expects to keep on being himself? a force in the Clarkston community both in a business and a charitable sense.