Thursday, July 30, 2015
Clark Foundation and Clark Sports Center Featured in NYTimes
When Jim Palmer and his wife, Susan, married in 2007, they chose to have the ceremony here, where he was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. But the maid of honor was not a relative or friend of the bride’s. Instead, it was Jane Forbes Clark, chairwoman of the Hall of Fame, who staged a celebration at the lodge behind Kingfisher Tower, a miniature castle built on Otsego Lake in the 19th century by Edward Clark, her great-great-grandfather.
“They wanted to get married on Hall of Fame induction weekend in a private ceremony and then tell everyone afterwards,” Clark said. “So I brought the champagne and the cake. And there we were.”
Palmer said: “She seized the plans by the throat. It’s what she does.”
The Hall of Fame was founded in 1936 by Stephen C. Clark Sr., Clark’s grandfather, whose tastes ran more to great works of art than bronze plaques of eminent players. The induction of new members will be held, as usual, on the greensward of the Clark Sports Center, which is owned by the Clark Foundation, which had more than $600 million in assets at the end of 2013....