Ms. Penny Clark

Special Collections Librarian

Began teaching at Lamar University in 2009

‘I came to Lamar in 2009 and I have been here ever since. I got an opportunity to do a lot of very interesting things. I worked on the TSUS (Texas State University System) book, as it is a part of the larger Lamar system. So, it was my great privilege to work on that book. That was very interesting. I learned a lot about Lamar from that. That was a great opportunity. I got a lot of opportunities at Lamar to further my publishing. I have been able to write a book. It was about one of our collections here. During World War II the Germans knew that a lot of good Texas oil was leaving Texas ports. So, they would blow up ships that had Texas oil in them, because they realized it was so vital for victory. There was a loss of life and good old Texas oil. The US Navy was all over, they were doing so many things they didn’t really have a chance to guard the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic. They had to depend on civilians. Civilians were going on military missions and fly very low in very old airplanes. Four of them from Beaumont lost their lives. We have a really great collection of images of the civil air patrol. I wrote an Arcadia Press book. I had a chance to utilize all those photographs that belong to Lamar. I published a couple of articles based on Lamar. One, I call Glory Days which was about how the second Spindletop oil boom entered downtown. There are so many buildings, the Goodhue Building, the Courthouse, so many of our buildings, came about during the second Spindletop. It came in in late 1925, almost a hundred years ago. It started a building boom. I was so interested in that I called that Glory Days. I also did another which is about to come out, The Untapped Black Gold about our oilfield collection. It is coming out in the Oil Industry History, a publication of the Petroleum History Institute. Since I have been here, I have had a chance to travel to places like Wyoming and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and I have given about 20 presentations and really enjoyed doing it. 

            I have another article that’s coming out, I am hoping to publish in the Southwestern Historical Quarterly how Lamar through its leaders utilized the opportunities of World War II to build today’s Lamar University. There was a man I really admire Judge J.M. Combs. He said this should be a four-year institution and he said we should have a fabulous engineering program all of which came about. He had got $800,000 in the bonds in order to build the first buildings here at Lamar as an independent campus. But that wasn’t quite enough. Anytime you have a construction project you never have enough money and he needed more money so we found out the government would offer hundred thousand dollars if they would open a war training school. So, here at Lamar they opened a war training school and they operated 24 hours, since it started here, I believe in 1940. Some of this was before World War II but they were starting in 1939. There is the shipyard here and there’s a shipyard in Orange, both got huge government contracts. So, they were really gearing up for World War II in the late 30s here. Everybody knew the war was coming and the shipyard got huge contracts. And so, Judge Combs said, we’ve got to train our local young people for these jobs or they are going to bring people in from the East. He was a bright man and he had a vision for Lamar. They asked him do you have any hobbies and he said, Lamar is my hobby. He had come up the hard way. His parents died when he was young and he was raised by his grandparents and his grandfather talked a lot about public service. The family had money but a panic had come through and they no longer had money and so he had to go and work in sawmills in the summer which is extremely hot, dangerous, dirty, but it was a way to earn money and he went to college to become a schoolteacher, then he read law night and he became a county judge in Hardin County when he was only 28 years old. So, he was really a remarkable person. Then when he came to Lamar, he had a vision: he said this should be a four-year institution, we should be on our own ground, we shouldn’t just be South Park. He had a vision for Lamar and all the things that he envisioned have come true.

 

I have an interest in the Civil War I really usually come back to World War II. I know war is a tragic horrible thing a lot of people lose their lives but it’s also a time when a lot of change in society like the role of women changes a lot. There is a lot more opportunities for women. So I usually come back to World War II. I had a chance to go to a lot of conferences. I met a man at a conference and he teaches at Mississippi. He’s an endowed chair and he said you really need to think beyond your telling the story but he said you’ve got the ability to try to work to publish in maybe higher places you know, challenge myself a little more and sometimes it is hard. It’s really an interesting opportunity.

            Any faculty at Lamar can use any of special collections and our University archives photo is free of charge to use a lot of them. We want people to know that we are a resource and you know if I had had to pay for all the photographs, I used in my book on the civil air patrol it would cost a lot of money.  I always had a passion for history. I was a very late in life child and maybe my parents had more time to talk to me and tell me stories. They had lived through the Great Depression, World War II. They had memories that went way back and maybe they had a lot more time with me that they did with the other children and so I guess I heard a lot more stories growing up. I was always fascinated by history. I think I would like to see a statue of Judge J.M. Combs. I think he’s largely forgotten and he was obsessed in a positive way with Lamar. People at that time called him the father of Lamar. I think there should be a statue of him on campus because it was really his vision for being a four-year institution and for having a fabulous engineering program.  Lamar owes him a big debt of gratitude.