Prof Clark made a huge impact on my life and my academic career. I am forever grateful for him, he was an amazing educator who made statistics seem so achievable for anyone. 

His passion was inspiring. He was an awesome grandfather. ( he would talk about his grandkiddos all the time in class)  I will miss seeing his silly statistics shirts in class and awesome shoes  He will be greatly missed.

I pray that he is now in the eternal Glory of our creator Jesus Christ. 

To the Clark family, I’m sorry for your loss, and I pray you find peace within our Lord. May God continue to bless you all! 

Matt Clark, was THE BEST MATH teacher I ever had!!!

God bless MATT for his dedication and teaching encouragement to me a student in both statistics and calculus..

He also coached my daughter in soccer...what an AWESOME person!!

So GREAT I was able to THANK Matt when I last saw him in Davis in 1999 ..

What a GREAT person...

Matt's obituary said that Matt coached both Ryan and Diane. What it didn’t say is that he also

coached many other people’s kids for many years. My daughter was fortunate to be one of

them beginning in 2001. Matt wasn’t sure he wanted someone from the team that made

their coach quit, so he checked with Teri, who was my daughter’s elementary science teacher.

And Matt became her coach. The first season, every shot she had on goal went flying over the

top of the net at Westwood Field, high into the trees. Matt said, “we can fix that”. And he

did.

The next season, they won the Comstock Shootout, getting better and better each game,

winning in overtime on the last possible penalty kick. Matt was wearing his “Life is Good” T-

shirt, which you will notice appearing in many of the tournament photos after that. His lucky

soccer shirt!

Julia Andrews was coaching with Matt. She’d asked him what his favorite ten songs were.

Well, Matt couldn’t just name ten, so he came up with a list of 100, and made her a tape of all

of them. I still wish I had asked for a copy. I do know that “Wish you Were Here” by Pink

Floyd was his favorite album at that time.

The soccer seasons continued. There were team runs, where Matt would accompany the girls

on his bicycle, ending somewhere for a pasta feed. He would come up with drills and games

to improve their skills. One particularly stays in my mind – “The Circle Game”. I don’t

remember all the details, but the team is in a circle, everyone has a number 1 – 5, a ball and

lots of running are involved. The girls loved it. At the end, I noticed that they’d jogged/run

for thirty minutes, and Matt said, “yup”.

My daughter played comp her senior year, and it was a bit of a shock after playing with Matt

for so long. Her soccer heart is all AYSO, and it was very difficult entering the competitive

world that didn’t abide by the AYSO’s and Matt’s principals. She did coach a U14 team with

Matt that year and loved it.

Even playing in college, she never forgot what she learned from Matt. In one game, a player

from the other team went down with a serious knee injury. My daughter stopped playing

(despite her coach screaming at her) and with the other nursing student players helped her

until the ambulance arrived. Earlier that same game she walked off the field because the

coach wanted to run up the score. She is AYSO deep to her core, thanks to Matt.

For the twenty plus years after we no longer spent time on the soccer field, I would run into

Matt at the Farmers’ Market and other places. We would catch up on what our families were

doing. His love for his family was so intense, especially after his granddaughter, Amara

arrived. It brought him such joy to be a grandpa.

The last time I ran into Matt, he was actually running after me in Costco as I was racing to the

checkout line. I heard someone yelling “slow down” multiple times, but didn’t think it was

intended for me. When I finally looked, there was Matt running behind me. He’d abandoned

his cart six aisles back. We again caught up on our families. He was so excited that Amara

was going to be playing soccer. I heard she scored her first goal right after we lost him. Matt

was definitely smiling.

In addition to the five AYSO principles of:

Everyone plays, positive coaching, good sportsmanship, open registration and balanced teams,

Matt had his own set of principles:

*Know what your teammates can do. If Nichole is doing a throw in, it’ll go halfway across

the field. If it’s another player, it might go just ten feet. Be there.

*Playing the position opposite yours makes you play your position better – At the start of

the game and end of halftime, Matt would call out positions. He’d always save the

switched positions to the very end, so the players couldn’t complain too much, with the

ref ready to start the game. They HATED going from goalie and defense to offense, and

the reverse.

*Walk it in. (Don’t take any crazy shots.)

*Respect the refs. They’re the best we have today. He always did!

*Play down when the other team is short. Always!

*Don’t run up the score. Why make the other team feel bad?

*Give a Tootsie Roll Pop to the other team’s players after the game when telling them

“Good game” Always!

And so, please take a Tootise Roll Pop from the dessert table today.

Great Game, Matt! Thanks for everything!

I learned of Matt’s passing today. 

Matt was my professor in 2018. He knew of my dreams of attending nursing school and as a Davis local I would run into him every couple years. Sometimes at farmers market, the grocery store, and even while picking up pizza. He was an easy man to spot with his jean shorts, math t shirts and chucks year round. Every time I saw him, he greeted me by name, and asked how my academic journey was going. 

Well, Matt. I am finally in nursing school and loving my journey. I have learned so much in only a couple semesters and I love my professors at Yuba College. 

To Matt’s family: I am so sorry for your loss. Know that his love for teaching and encouragement to all his students have motivated and inspired many like myself to keep going and follow our dreams. 

Professor Clark was easily the best teacher I’ve ever had. In Spring of 2023, I enrolled in a  statistics class, which was scary at first because I’ve always been challenged by math and early mornings. Mr. Clark quickly sparked my interest in the importance of understanding statistics and how they functioned. His patience and ability to empathize with his students allowed him to teach in such a unique and impactful way. The passion he had for the subject inspired me to find joy in my own academic interests. Most importantly, his silly math related shirts were always the best part of my day. His sense of humor and kindness will always be remembered.

Although I’m not sure if he knew how appreciative I am, I am so incredibly grateful to have crossed paths with him. Mr. Clark showed me that no subject was impossible to learn, I just needed the right teacher. He inspired me to further my education and challenge myself, and I hope to carry that life lesson with me forever. My deepest condolences go out to his family, friends, and loved ones. He truly was a gift.

I had Mr.Clark for statistics last semester and am sadly only finding out about his passing now. Over the last couple years I have been at woodland community I’d have to say that he was and always will be my favorite professor. He helped me so much during and outside of class as well. He was so understanding that everyone had their own lives and sometimes that gets in the way of things which made me, as a student feel so seen. I wasn’t the best as stats but Mr Clark did everything in his power to help me. I think meeting with him in his office was sometimes the best parts of my days; we would talk about baseball and how he loved to have Mountain Dew on deck. He always made me feel so included in class and would never put a student down for not getting the correct answer but instead would use words like “not quite”, he never used the word “wrong”. Even tho we only knew each other for a short amount of time he will be missed. My deepest condolences and wishes go out to his family and loved ones. He was such a great guy. 

And lastly, Mr. Clark; I’m so glad to have known you! I’ll miss seeing you’re daily math shirts walking the hauls.

Professor Clark's memorial was beautiful and comforting to hear from the ones closest to him. Thank you to all who made it happen. I appreciate the kind woman who read a little bit of what I wrote to everyone. And, I hope my venn diagram was enjoyed by a few as much as Dr. Clark and I enjoyed it. 

Teri,

I am so sorry for your loss. My thoughts are with you and your family.

Terri McGuire

Things I will miss about my colleague and friend.

His integrity. Matt always noticed who had been forgotten. In conversations, he would ask how our decisions would affect students; whether Lake had been consulted; were we including part-time faculty; how would this impact staff. He made sure no one was forgotten.His courage. Matt was always willing to stand up (especially for others). And to engage in the difficult conversations. His care. I think everyone at WCC felt cared for by Matt.I will miss him more than I say. I can only imagine how much greater is the loss for his family and friends. Holding you all in my thoughts.

I was introduced to Matt his first year at WCC. I was working at YC in the math department and we had our annual meeting. I remember that meeting because Matt was so kind and easy to talk to.

Fast forward 13 years when we became WCC colleagues. Matt was so very welcoming and helpful when I arrived. He was the only person I knew at WCC and was always checking in on me making sure I was doing okay. (This continued until this last semester.)

He was always there to support all of us when we needed it. He stood up for me when a Dean wouldn’t and took his union representation seriously. I knew when he was elected Senate president that we would be in good hands.

He appreciated everything that everyone did to support the college. He would make sure that all were recognized and appreciated for their hard work.

I will dearly miss his daily wave through the classroom window when he walked by and his genuine interest in my kids whenever we had a moment to talk.

Hugs to his family. I know you understand this by now, but he was greatly loved and respected at WCC and I am so sad that we did not have the opportunity to honor him for all that he gave to the students, faculty and staff.