By Carole Hawkins, [email protected]
Charlie Clark, the “godfather” of the Sales and Marketing Council in Jacksonville, paid what he called his “last visit” to the organization in March.
“It’s not because I’m going anywhere or dying,” he said. “But I’m sure most of you have heard enough from me and we don’t need any more.”
Clark in October was diagnosed with Stage 4 lung cancer and told he had four months to live.
“The next thing I know, in November you all put up a banner in here that said ‘We love Charlie Clark.’ I have that hanging at my house and I like to look at it,” Clark said.
He came to thank his well-wishers for the emails, texts, cards and prayers, and said they played no small role in keeping him alive.
Clark is one of Northeast Florida’s most highly respected sales and marketing analysts. He has been active in the National Home Builders Association and has spoken for associations in almost every state.
A handful, though, also know him as the man behind the creation of Jacksonville’s SMC.
It was about 1986, longtime sales consultant Rose Bock remembered, when NEFBA executive director Arnold Tritt tasked Clark with reviving the group’s defunct Sales and Marketing Council.
Clark culled the first board from his contacts. Bock recollected they included herself; her business partner at the time, Abbi Schaefer; Naomi Lumley, who is now director of sales at Palencia; and Barbara Moore, who is division president for Lennar Homes.
“He got us all into this room at his office,” Bock said. “We all didn’t know what a Sales and Marketing Council was.”
Then he gave everybody their assignments. It wasn’t a situation of anyone volunteering. Clark was highly respected and no one refused him.
“It was because of the kind of person he was. If he told you to go to a meeting, you went,” Bock said.
Because of his guidance and the caliber of people he chose, Jacksonville’s became an award-winning SMC. His ties to the national association kept the local chapter in the loop with industry happenings all the way up to Washington D.C.
Bock said Clark’s sense of humor gives him a great ability to rise above trials, even above cancer.
Clark, who is now five months into chemotherapy treatment, thanked Cynthia Montello, who came to the hospital to pray for him.
He also thanked his wife, who he said “has been through hell these past five months” as his full-time care giver.
Then he bid farewell to supporters.
“All of you will be in my prayers for the rest of my life and I hope that you will keep me in your prayers,” he said. “God bless you each and every one.”