Dr. Clark Gilbert Reynolds, B.A., M.A. (History), Ph.D. (December 11, 1939 – December 10, 2005) was an historian of

naval warfare Naval warfare is combat in and on the sea, the ocean, or any other battlespace involving a major body of water such as a large lake or wide river. Mankind has fought battles on the sea for more than 3,000 years. Even in the interior of large la ...

, with a particular interest in the development of U.S.

naval aviation Naval aviation is the application of military air power by navies, whether from warships that embark aircraft, or land bases. Naval aviation is typically projected to a position nearer the target by way of an aircraft carrier. Carrier-based a ...

. In addition, he made contributions to the fields of world history, strategic history, and the history of maritime civilizations.

Biography

The eldest of the two sons of William G. and Alma E. (Clark) Reynolds, he was a native of

San Gabriel, California San Gabriel (Spanish for " St. Gabriel") is a city located in the San Gabriel Valley of Los Angeles County, California. At the 2010 census, the population was 39,718. San Gabriel was founded by the Spanish in 1771, when Mission San Gabriel Arc ...

and graduated with his bachelor of arts from the

University of California, Santa Barbara The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Santa Barbara County, California, Santa Barbara, California with 23,196 undergraduate ...

in 1961. Reynolds went on the

Duke University Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James ...

, where he earned his master of arts degree in history in 1963 and his Ph.D. in 1964 under Professor

Theodore Ropp Theodore Ropp (1911–2000) was an American historian who served as a professor at Duke University. Academic career Theodore Ropp's first teaching position was as an instructor in history at Harvard University in 1937–38. In 1938, Duke Univers ...

. Reynolds began his career as an instructor, and later an associate professor, in the Department of English, History, and Government at the U.S. Naval Academy in 1964–1968. From there, he went to the

University of Maine The University of Maine (UMaine or UMO) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Orono, Maine. It was established in 1865 as the land-grant college of Maine and is the Flagship universities, flagshi ...

, where he served in the Department of History from 1968 to 1976 as Associate, and then full Professor. While at the University of Maine, he and William J. McAndrew conducted seminars in maritime and regional history, and Reynolds became a pivotal figure in helping to organize the

North American Society for Oceanic History The North American Society for Oceanic History (NASOH) is the national organization in the United States of America for professional historians, underwater archeologists, archivists, librarians, museum specialists and others working in the broad fi ...

, serving as that organization's first secretary-treasurer. From 1976 to 1978, he was Professor, and later head of the Department of Humanities with the rank of captain in the U.S. Merchant Marine at the

U.S. Merchant Marine Academy The United States Merchant Marine Academy (USMMA or Kings Point) is a United States service academy in Kings Point, New York. It trains its midshipmen (as students at the academy are called) to serve as officers in the United States Merchant ...

at Kings Point New York. He served briefly as visiting professor at

Mississippi State University Mississippi State University for Agriculture and Applied Science, commonly known as Mississippi State University (MSU), is a public land-grant research university adjacent to Starkville, Mississippi. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Unive ...

in the autumn of 1979, but for most of the decade between 1978 and 1988, he was an independent scholar, working as the part-time curator and historian at the Patriot's Point Naval and Maritime Museum in Charleston, South Carolina. In 1988, he was appointed professor of history and served as chairman of the History Department at the

College of Charleston The College of Charleston (CofC or Charleston) is a public university in Charleston, South Carolina. Founded in 1770 and chartered in 1785, it is the oldest university in South Carolina, the 13th oldest institution of higher learning in the Unit ...

from 1988 to 1993. In 1999, he was appointed Distinguished Professor and served in that capacity until his retirement in 2002, when he was named Distinguished Professor Emeritus.

Bibliography

*''Carrier Admiral'' by J. J. Clark (1893–1971) with Clark G. Reynolds. (1967) *''The Fast Carriers: The Forging of an Air Navy'' (1968; 1978; 1992; 2014) *''Command of the sea: The History and Strategy of Maritime Empires'' (1974; 1983) *''The Saga of Smokey Stover'' by Elisha Terrill Stover (1920–1944) and Clark G. Reynolds (1974) *''Famous American Admirals'' (1978; 2002) *''The Carrier War'' (1982) *''The Fighting Lady: The New ''Yorktown'' in the Pacific war'' (1986) *''Global Crossroads and the American Seas'' edited by Clark G. Reynolds for the

International Commission for Maritime History The International Commission for Maritime History (ICMH) was established in 1960 to promote international cooperation and the exchange of ideas in the field of maritime history. It is affiliated with the International Committee of Historical Scie ...

(1988) *''History and the Sea: Essays on Maritime strategies'' (1989) *''War in the Pacific'' (1990) *''Admiral John H. Towers: the Struggle for Naval Air Supremacy'' (1991) *''Navies in History'' (1998) *''On the Warpath in the Pacific : Admiral Jocko Clark and the Fast Carriers'' (2005) Dr. Reynolds also published fifty-seven journal articles in his field and contributed to a number of encyclopedias and biographical dictionaries.

Awards and honors

The

American Military Institute The Society for Military History is a United States–based international organization of scholars who research, write, and teach military history of all time periods and places. It includes naval history, air power history, and studies of technol ...

awarded Reynolds with its Moncado Prize for articles that appeared in ''Military History'' in 1975 and 1988. Reynolds received the 1992 Samuel Eliot Morison Award for Naval Literature from the Naval Order of the United States, and the Admiral Arthur W. Radford Award for Excellence in Naval Aviation History and Literature from the Naval Aviation Museum Foundation in

Pensacola, Florida Pensacola () is the westernmost city in the Florida Panhandle, and the county seat and only incorporated city of Escambia County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 54,312. Pensacola is the principal ...

. In 1993, the

(NASOH) awarded him its K. Jack Bauer Award for distinguished service to NASOH and for his lifetime of distinguished contributions to the field of maritime history. In his honor, the Society annually awards the Clark G. Reynolds Student Paper Award to the author of the best paper by a graduate student delivered at the society's annual conference.

Personal life

In 1963, Reynolds married Constance A. Caine of Garden City, New York, a

Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States, and the most prestigious, due in part to its long history and academic selectivity. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal a ...

student in Political Science at Duke University, with whom he had two sons and a daughter and who served throughout his career as his valued researcher, proof reader, and typist. A lover of jazz music from the 1920–1940 era, Reynolds often served as a volunteer disk jockey on radio programs broadcast on the Maine Public Broadcasting Network and South Carolina Education Radio. Dr. Clark G. Reynolds died on December 10, 2005, in

Pisgah Forest, North Carolina Pisgah Forest is an unincorporated community in Transylvania County, North Carolina, United States. It sits at an elevation of 2100 feet (640 m) along U.S. Route 64, northeast of Brevard. It is approximately a 30-minute drive from the Ashevill ...

. Reynold's uncle had been Admiral Joseph James "Jocko" Clark's Flag Lieutenant, which is partly why he co-authored Admiral Clark's memoirs, and would later write his biography.December 2006: Review of his biography of Adm Clark
", International Journal of Naval History. Retrieved 29 January 2008.

References

External links

World History Lecture series on DVD set

Resume

"Time for Reality to Replace "PDB" History" @ ''Historically Speaking: The Bulletin of the Historical Society'', March/April 2005 (Volume VI, Number 4)

Obituary Notice @ ''H-Net – Humanities and Social Sciences Online'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Reynolds, Clark G. 1939 births 2005 deaths American military writers American naval historians American male non-fiction writers College of Charleston faculty Duke University alumni Historians of aviation Historians of the United States People from San Gabriel, California United States Merchant Marine Academy faculty University of California, Santa Barbara alumni Writers from California University of Maine faculty 20th-century American male writers Historians from California