Brian Aaron Martin Clark

Brian Aaron Martin Clark, 44, passed away unexpectedly in Puerto Escondido, Mexico, on October 1, 2024. He is survived by his wife Sara Anne Clark; mother Susan Comer; and step-mother Cindi Osborne. Brian is preceded in death by his father, Martin Wayne Clark.

Brian met his wife Sara while studying abroad in Mexico. Married 16 years, they were currently staying in Oaxaca, Mexico, and had spent the weekend in Mazunte, a coastal town where they had visited and fallen in love 18 years earlier. On their return, their bus was in a collision with a truck.

Brian was born in September, 1980, in Greensboro, N.C. He grew up there playing soccer and the bass guitar, drumming on any surface in front of him. He hated school; his ADHD label and resistance to authority landed him in what his neurotypical peers called the "retard room." However, Brian was driven to carve his own path in life and eventually fell in love with education while at University of North Carolina at Greensboro, where he earned a BA in Psychology and a BA in Philosophy and published his first research with colleagues. He went on to earn an MA in Social Psychology at Wake Forest University and a PhD in Social-Personality Psychology with his supporting area in Structural Equation Modeling at the University of Oregon, where he conducted research on hypocrisy, morality, and student wellbeing. He published various academic articles.

Brian felt intensely, thought deeply, and acted deliberately. While developing his dissertation and serving as a data analyst, Brian's passion for research, statistics, and thwarting systems of oppression converged to launch what became the Student Wellbeing and Success Initiative. In 2017, he was promoted to Assistant Director of Assessment and Research in the Division of Student Life at the University of Oregon. His unique, longitudinal research and intervention program worked to close inequities in student wellbeing and success gaps through thoughtful, innovative analysis and by empowering people to make data-informed decisions.

Brian's desire to shift social norms for a more humane future led him to become a founding member of Ember Coop, a public benefit cooperative. He put his skills to use wading through complex data to identify how regular humans can take action in everyday life, such as mitigating effects of the devastating US drug war and Wishlist Challenge for a Christmas that is healthier for our local communities, better for the planet, and more fun.*

Brian loved adventuring with his wife, cooking, and drumming. As a nomad, he traded in his beloved drumset for hard-shell suitcases and continued jamming. He was intentionally living his dreams outside the box.** He and Sara had beautiful plans scoped out for their upcoming third consecutive year in Latin America. Brian's decent fluency in Spanish and openness to engage meant an enriching last two years of forming new friendships, including through making pizza from scratch. Inspired by "The Flavor Matrix" and local ingredients, Brian found pizza to be an ideal canvas for his creativity, such as his homage to cayeye, a coastal Colombian dish, with plantain puree and hogao (stewed tomato, onion, and garlic) on pizza.*** It is a loss for the world that Brian did not get to complete his goal of contributing to, in his words, "avoiding climate catastrophe by inspiring a plant-forward diet with fruit-centric pizza that surprises the palette and expands culinary possibilities."

For Brian's wild and varied life, quotes were the "rug that tied the room together." Throughout his years, he lived by sayings, such as "Everybody's gotta be somewhere" from his grampy, Aaron Comer, and "Buy the ticket, take the ride" from Hunter S. Thompson.

"There he goes. One of God's own prototypes. A high-powered mutant of some kind never even considered for mass production. Too weird to live, and too rare to die." - Hunter S. Thompson

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In lieu of flowers, please consider donating to the Memorial for Brian Clark & Support for Sara Clark's Healing (GoFundMe), set up to cover the ongoing healthcare expenses of his wife Sara who was injured in the accident that took Brian's life: https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-saras-healing-journey

*https://ember.coop/projects/war-on-drugs/war-on-people and Brian's writing https://blog.ember.coop/wishlist-challenge/ regarding WishlistChallenge.org

**https://blog.ember.coop/dreamers-dreaming/

***"The Flavor Matrix: The Art and Science of Pairing Common Ingredients to Create Extraordinary Dishes" by James Briscione & Brooke Parkhurst, available on Bookshop.org.