LEXINGTON, Va. Jan. 21, 2025 — In an era when most employees remain at a job for less than five years, Chris Clark, who is retiring from Virginia Military Institute after 52 years, and under the leadership of six superintendents, is a rare gem.  

Clark began her career at VMI in August 1972, while still a senior taking business classes at Lexington High School. As part of the cooperative education program, Clark went to school in the morning, then drove to VMI in the afternoon for paid work experience in the registrar’s office.  

After her high school graduation in May 1973, Clark applied for a full-time job at VMI and was hired to work as a file clerk and switchboard operator in the basement of Smith Hall.

Clark explained, “The file room was filled with cabinets of files of VMI alumni from the time of its founding. A staff member in another department was charged with reading several different newspapers, and clipping articles and announcements which mentioned VMI, or the name of an alumnus. I would receive the clippings, mount them on paper, and file them. We would include marriages, births of children, promotions, anything that pertained to the alumni. When anyone with the proper clearance and the permission of the particular alumnus came in to examine a file for a background check, like the Secret Service, Department of Defense, or the FBI, we would provide the information.”  

Clark even learned to print letterhead on the multilith, a small printing press used to duplicate office forms housed in the file room.

“I would have to put an apron on to run the multilith, and I’d finish with black ink all over my hands,” she laughed.

Understandably, Clark grew intimately knowledgeable concerning alumni, as well as every post phone number during the 20 years she worked in the office.  

In 1993, Clark was transferred to the public relations office, which is now known as communications and marketing (C&M). There, she was exposed to new experiences, expanded her computer skills, and learned about publications.

“Public relations was different. I like people, I’ve always been a people person, and I loved my job. It gave me purpose to get up and go to work.”  

Clark recalled the famous people who visited VMI during her time in C&M, like Ruby Sales, the teenage girl whose life was saved by Jonathan Daniels ’61 in August 1965, and President George H. W. Bush. She remembered working long hours when female cadets first matriculated in 1997.

“That week we often came in at six o’clock in the morning, and worked all day, sometimes until nine o’clock at night. But we did what we had to do.” 

Former director of C&M, Stewart MacInnis, often relied on Clark for her insight into the VMI environment.

“She had so much more experience here than the rest of us. Also, she spent more time in the basement of Smith Hall than most VMI employees spent in the workforce over their entire careers,” he joked. 

It was in the C&M office that she met her husband, Burton “B.R.” Floyd. It was Floyd who assisted her with the multilith and tutored her on the computer. Their professional camaraderie grew into friendship.

“We had a good relationship. We would go to lunch together, and sometimes we would go to dinner or a movie. We both liked the same things, and for many years we were the best of friends.”

Later, the friendship matured into love. Though they had known each other for decades, they didn’t marry until 2020. The couple maintained their professionalism as colleagues while on post. 

Clark described retirement as bittersweet. “VMI has been my life since high school, but it’s time to start this new chapter, and hopefully it’ll be as good to me as VMI has been. I’ve met so many people who have become my friends.”   

Her retirement plans include learning to quilt. “My mother and my grandmother used to make beautiful quilts and I’d love to learn to do that.”

She plans to continue to work the polls on election day as she has done for over 20 years, and she also wants to do volunteer work. She is a member of Lauderdale Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church in Lexington where she is a member of the women’s ministry, and chairman of the Janet White/Willing Workers circle.  

Clark, who comes from a large extended family — both her father and mother each had nine siblings — jokes that she is kin to almost everybody in Rockbridge County. Her son, Seth, is an officer for the VMI police department, and his wife, Ruth, works for VMI Alumni Agencies in the Office of Finance & Administration. They are the parents of Clark’s only grandchild, Lily, who attends Rockbridge County High School. 

Marianne Hause
Communications & Marketing
VIRGINIA MILITARY INSTITUTE