{"id":600,"date":"2025-10-21T10:43:46","date_gmt":"2025-10-21T14:43:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/campaign-new\/?post_type=story&p=600"},"modified":"2025-11-06T15:14:42","modified_gmt":"2025-11-06T20:14:42","slug":"gifts-that-always-matter","status":"publish","type":"story","link":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/plan-and-purpose\/2025\/10\/21\/gifts-that-always-matter\/","title":{"rendered":"Gifts that always matter"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

For Larry Franks, M.A. \u201973, it wasn\u2019t the technical training gleaned from his graduate education that mattered most, but other, less concrete skills that truly made the difference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was the ability to think, the ability to not only assemble data but to understand it, and then, most importantly, communicate it,\u201d he says. A student of international relations, he was well-equipped to conduct surveys of Saigon households during the Vietnam War, in neighborhoods that had never seen an American.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Larry and his wife, Ellen Berelson, want to help ensure the opportunities for a unique and deeply felt educational experience will continue to be offered by Clark. To that end, they\u2019ve made the University a beneficiary in their planned-giving profile.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The couple has also long supported Clark students with meaningful paid internships through the Theodore H. Barth Foundation, which funds more than 50 arts, education, and social service organizations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ellen is the foundation president; Larry, the secretary-treasurer. \u201cWe were lucky that when we went to college, you could graduate without crushing debt,\u201d says Ellen, who previously worked for the State Department\u2019s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. \u201cCost should not be a bar to people getting themselves equipped fora better life. There\u2019s no substitute for a good education.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Larry, a Clark trustee, enjoyed a long career that included a stintin the Peace Corps in Africa, ownership of a video-production company, and ending his career with Vertex Solutions\/AdayanaInc., implementing learning management systems for a number offederal and international agencies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why give to Clark? The answer is clear, Larry says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf science matters, if learning matters, if international understand-ing matters, then it matters that universities like Clark be nurtured and supported.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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