Nate Clark Family Named UI Family Spirit Award Recipients

PHOTO COURTESY CLARK FAMILY From left, Fred G. Clark, Craig O. Clark, Craig E. Clark, Nate Clark, and Spencer Clark have carried forth a family tradition of attaining an education at the UI College of Law.

During his final year and a half at the University of Iowa College of Law, Spencer Clark (26JD) hosted Dungeons & Dragons parties with four friends on the Iowa Law Review. Gathering around a table to play the collaborative role-playing game offered a respite from the rigors of law school, but more importantly, an opportunity to develop camaraderie and better understand their shared beliefs. Spencer now considers these classmates as family. “In moments like this, we’re able to take a step back and realize we’re connected by shared values as opposed to shared workloads and shared fear of cold calls,” says Spencer. “It’s those moments that really show you that the University of Iowa can bring individuals from all over the country together under a similar umbrella of values.”

Spencer’s father, Nate Clark (99JD), can attest to a similar experience of developing community, purpose, and ideals as an Iowa Law graduate and former member of the Iowa Law Review. He says the university helped build his moral compass. During his time as president of the John Deere Foundation, Nate led efforts to raise awareness for youth mental health in Iowa and partnered with UI leadership to establish the John Deere Scholars Program, a first-of-its-kind scholarship initiative focused on empowering marginalized youth in Davenport, Iowa.

Spencer represents the most recent of the five generations of Iowa law graduates in the Clark family. He and Nate will return to Iowa City with their family—and some Hawkeye friends who have become family—to be celebrated as recipients of the university’s 2026 Family Spirit Award during Family Weekend, including an on-field recognition at the Iowa football game against Northern Iowa. The award honors a family that has substantially benefited from and continues to advocate for the university, as well as contributes toward bettering the state of Iowa and its communities.

“I’m still in awe that we were nominated and selected for the award,” says Nate. “Our family has always viewed the University of Iowa as the center of our intellectual and moral growth.”

First Generation: Service and the Law

Brothers James G. Clark (1910LLB) and Fred G. Clark (1917LLB) started the family’s longstanding connection to the UI College of Law. Fred completed his degree in 1917, soon after the U.S. officially joined World War I. The law school’s enrollment dropped to 18 students that year, as many eligible male students, including Fred, enlisted or were drafted to the military. After World War I, Fred and James founded Clark & Clark in Waterloo, Iowa. Fred continued his military service in World War II, serving as a brigadier general.

Second Generation: Following Footsteps

Two of Fred’s sons, Fred G. Clark Jr. (48BA, 49LLB) and Craig O. Clark (48BA, 53JD) continued the family’s legacy, both serving in World War II and earning law degrees at Iowa. Fred joined the Phi Kappa Sigma fraternity and Craig was a member of the Iowa Law Review and lived with his wife in one of the Quonset huts on the UI campus that provided temporary housing to postwar Veterans. After Craig and Fred completed their military service and graduated, they joined Clark & Clark in Waterloo.

PHOTO COURTESY CLARK FAMILY Craig E. Clark, positioned in the center of the bottom row, participated in cheerleading during his undergraduate career at the UI.

Third Generation: Cheerleader to Air Force Airman

Nate’s father, Craig E. Clark (71BA, 80MD, 99JD), pledged to the Sigma Pi fraternity, participated in cheerleading and the UI’s Air Force ROTC, and earned an undergraduate degree in economics. Nate’s mother, Pamela Ernst Clark (71BA), earned a UI education degree. Craig returned to Iowa to complete a degree in medicine, earned the rank of major while fulfilling his service in the Air Force, and later attained a law degree alongside Nate.

PHOTO COURTESY CLARK FAMILY Nate Clark attained his law degree at Iowa in the same year as his father, Craig E. Clark.

Fourth Generation: Inspired by Crosswords and Jay Holstein

Craig and Pamela’s son, Nate, developed an early interest in attending Iowa because of crossword puzzles. Growing up, he spent summers with his grandfather, Craig O. Clark, in Waterloo while his father served in the Air Force. Nate sat beside his grandfather at the table and watched in amazement as he completed a daily crossword puzzle with ease. “He would do it so fast,” says Nate. “And I remember thinking, ‘Wow, I want to be as smart as him.’ I view the University of Iowa as an extension of that; the proof point of how Iowa was such a good school is that he could do the crossword puzzle [so fast].”

Nate began his undergraduate career at Iowa in 1992 but was so influenced by one of religious studies professor Jay Holstein’s courses, in which students read Elie Wiesel’s memoir Night, that he transferred to Boston University, where Wiesel taught. Nate earned a degree there in religion, but he always knew he’d return. Nate applied to only Iowa for law school, which he started in 1996, and soon began to understand that his law education was more about learning how to think and work with people than the law itself. It was also about building relationships and strengthening values. He embodied those principles through connecting with classmates like Kevin Zimmerman (99JD) and post-collegiate friends like Laura Eberlin and Ann McGlynn (96BA, 17MBA). The fourth generation of Iowa law graduates in the Clark family also includes Nate’s sister, Monica Clark (92BA, 95JD), who served on the Iowa Law Review.

Since graduating from Iowa, Nate has remained engaged with his alma mater while continuing to uphold the people-first values he developed there, including as a young attorney at Lane & Waterman in Davenport, Iowa, and during a 20-year career with John Deere. Nate served as a UI College of Education commencement keynote speaker in spring 2023, supported and advocated for the work of the UI Scanlan Center School for Mental Health, and recently made a planned estate gift to support the Tippie Gateway Program and first-generation students. “Throughout my life, what I’ve seen at the core of his work is to help people,” says Spencer, Nate’s son. “He’s made an active effort to try and create community wherever he is.”

PHOTO COURTESY CLARK FAMILY Spencer Clark, second from the right, celebrated his graduation from the UI College of Law with his parents, Nate Clark and Melissa Anderson Clark, and his grandfather Gary Anderson this past spring.

Fifth Generation: Iowa Legal Aid and Family Law

Spencer remembers delivering meals to families at Christmas from an early age, one of the ways his mother, Melissa Anderson Clark, taught him the value of helping those less fortunate. Earning an Iowa law degree has allowed him to use the privilege of his education to benefit others. “Iowa Law was a unique way to engage in a sometimes deeply unapproachable language, something that is quite foreign and often scary to people who don’t understand,” says Spencer. “We were given the opportunity to simplify it, make it less scary, and help [people] along the way.”

During a couple summer internships with Iowa Legal Aid, a nonprofit law firm that provides free legal service to low-income Iowans, Spencer helped secure continued housing and other relief for families facing evictions and landlord-tenant issues. That work inspired a student note he wrote for the Iowa Law Review, recommending amendments to Iowa’s eviction laws to ensure more just and fair treatment of vulnerable Iowans.

Spencer’s work deeply resonated with Nate, who now works for Iowa Legal Aid. “What I saw with Spencer is he had taken not only his intelligence and brilliance, but his really sharp moral compass to do something that I had sort of forgotten about,” says Nate, “which is you work with a client every single day to do something better and make the world around you better. Legal representation isn’t just something that exists for people with means; it should exist for everyone.”

Spencer now lives in Mankato, Minnesota, with his fiancée, Madison Kracht, and will continue helping families as a family law attorney at Gislason & Hunter.

Extended Family

Across five generations of Iowa law graduates, the Clarks have served their university, their country, and communities big and small. All the while, they’ve shown that a law degree opens countless doors to help people and that the true meaning of family extends beyond bloodlines.

“We’re so deeply honored to be recognized,” says Nate. “And at the same time, we want to share the recognition because there are so many other Hawkeyes who have made our lives better. The Family Spirit Award is bigger than us.”