Opinion: Remembering Ted Clark, great colleague — better friend

Ted Clark grew up around the world, as the child of a US diplomat, living in Holland, Morrocco, and South Africa. His steadiness, fairness, and decency often made me think when he was NPR’s Diplomatic Correspondent that Ted could show some members of the foreign service what real diplomacy sounds like. Ted Clark died last week, at the age of 79.

Ted came to NPR in its scrappy, early years, produced All Things Considered, then covered the White House and State Department before helping lead the International Desk. Longtime correspondent Sylvia Poggioli said he was, “a masterful editor, gentle, patient soul, and steely defender of reporters against bureaucratic managers.”

Editor Martha Wexler called Ted “the gentlest soul at NPR, who nurtured reporters and helped them do their very best work.” Reporter and editor Brenda Wilson said, “He had a way of accommodating those who didn’t fit the mold of whatever establishment where he landed.”

Julie McCarthy, who covered so much of the world for NPR, recalled Ted Clark as “that rare creature who combined collaboration, kindness, and a steely determination to get it right — with a dollop of poetry thrown in.”

Ted and I came to NPR at about the same time, but I didn’t know this story until this week:

Producer Neenah Ellis and Ted went to Mozambique in 1990 to report on children who had been separated from their families during the civil war.

“Ted interviewed children,” Neenah told us. “He was so good at that. We met a 10-year-old boy named Manicu Vashku. He was so small and quiet and wide eyed and sweet. Ted took to him immediately. The story Ted wrote about our trip was spare and matter of fact and kept returning to the children: how silent they were, how confused they seemed, how obedient they were.”

Their story, by the way, would win a Peabody Award.

Ted and Neenah joined workers from Save the Children as they brought Manicu to his aunt, in a village shattered by war.

“When it was time to leave, Ted gave Manicu notebooks and pens and told him to study hard.”

“I’m so glad I got to go there with Ted,” Neenah Ellis told us. “He always had a reverence about him.” Ted Clark was that exceptional journalist — and that rare soul — who always tried to find ways to help.

 

Iceland reports the presence of mosquitoes for the first time, as climate warms

The discovery of three Culiseta annulata mosquitoes was confirmed this week by the Natural Science Institute of Iceland, which said the mosquitoes likely arrived by freight.

Alabama board seeks to ban books that ‘positively’ depict trans themes from library youth sections

The Alabama Public Library Service Board of Directors is considering a proposed rule change that expands the existing requirement for youth sections to be free of “material deemed inappropriate for children.” The new proposal said that includes any material that “positively depicts transgender procedures, gender ideology, or the concept of more than two biological genders.”

After months of the same songs on the Hot 100, ‘Billboard’ tweaks its rules

Billboard has revised its system of removing songs from the Hot 100 singles chart once they've gotten too old to qualify as contemporary hits.

Greetings from an Indian Railways coach, with spectacular views from Mumbai to Goa

Far-Flung Postcards is a weekly series in which NPR's international team shares moments from their lives and work around the world.

Alabama inmate asks to meet with governor ahead of execution

Anthony Boyd is scheduled to be executed Thursday evening by nitrogen gas at the William C. Holman Correctional Facility. A jury convicted Boyd of capital murder for the 1993 burning death of Gregory Huguley in Talladega County.

Mental exercise can reverse a brain change linked to aging, study finds

Scientists have found the first compelling evidence that cognitive training can boost levels of a brain chemical that typically declines as people age.

More Front Page Coverage