History
AGA Mourns the Loss
of its First Female President,
Eleanor M. Clark, CGFM
February 27, 2001
Eleanor M. Clark, CGFM, the first woman to hold AGA’s highest
elected office, passed away on Tuesday, Feb. 27, in Virginia. A
member of AGA’s Washington, D.C. Chapter, she was a member for more
than 30 years.
National
President WA “Bill” Broadus Jr., CGFM, expressed his sympathies to
the Clark family and recalled her enormous contributions to the
Association and the profession. “Ellie Clark was a trailblazer,” he
said. “She opened doors for women in our Association and our
profession. She will be sorely missed by all of her AGA friends and
colleagues.”
Clark was
interviewed in June of 1999, along with the other three women who
have served as AGA National President. Presented here is a portion
of that interview:
When Ellie Clark
became the first woman to serve as AGA National President in
1981-1982, and no one was more surprised than she was. When she
graduated from The George Washington University, she couldn’t get an
interview with a national public accounting firm because she was a
woman. The private sector’s loss was government’s gain. All of the
women who have served as AGA’s President agree that government was
always ahead of the private sector in opening doors to women and
minorities.
As Clark’s
government career progressed, she was encouraged by a colleague to
join AGA to enhance her professional development. While she found
that the organization welcomed all comers, it never occurred to her
to seek out a national leadership position—until she was asked to
consider a run for National President.
"I was
overwhelmed at such a notion," Clark said, describing her reaction
to being asked. Becoming President, it turned out, was not
automatic, even with the endorsement of the Nominating Committee.
For the first time that anyone could remember, an opposition
candidate came forward at the last minute and managed to win one
chapter away from Clark. But she won all the others and began two
years as President-Elect and President, traveling to more than 60
chapters. At no point during her term, did Clark feel that she was
treated differently because she was a woman—the first woman to lead
the Association.
“It didn’t seem
to ever again be an issue,” said Clark, who retired from the federal
government as the chief financial officer of the Federal Housing
Administration and (was then) working as an international financial
management consultant. “You just have to get over the hump.”
While she is
known for being the first female National President, she is
especially proud of several significant accomplishments during her
year. Recognizing the serious deficiencies in AGA’s education
program, Clark led a major effort to redefine AGA’s education goals,
to restructure program substance and to enhance delivery mechanisms
to achieve the “biggest bang for the buck.” A Common Body of
Knowledge for Government Financial Managers and Auditors (CBOK),
issued during Clark’s term, became the basis for shaping major
modifications to the education program. Most noteworthy, was the
restructuring—and renaming—of the annual Professional Development
Conference (previously known as the Annual Symposium) to provide
in-depth training in key technical financial management subject
areas such as accounting, auditing, budgeting and technology, and to
emphasize the importance of continuing professional education to the
government financial management profession.
“Ellie did such
an excellent job that it was never a question again that a woman
could provide the leadership that the membership needed,” said June
Gibbs Brown, CGFM, who was the second woman to be AGA National
President.
Clark continued
to serve as an Association leader in the years that followed her
stint as National President. In 1990 she chaired the Emerging Issues
Committee, which defined fraud auditing, ethics, information
technology, management information/financial statements, internal
controls, and budget process and fiscal accountability as key areas
of concern to AGA members. A longtime champion of a professional
certification for government financial managers, she served as a
member of the first Professional Certification Board after the
Certified Government Financial Manager (CGFM) Program was founded in
1994. In 1999, Clark was awarded the Association’s highest honor,
the Robert W. King Memorial Award, recognizing her many years of
service to AGA.
Clark was the
wife of the late John Zych. She is survived by two brothers, John D.
Clark Jr. and William S. Clark; and three nephews, Kevin A. Clark,
J. Jeffrey Clark and A. Andrew Clark. The family has requested
contributions be made to the American Cancer Society or Hospice of
Northern Virginia.
by Marie
Sullivan Force