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Clark is Arthur Leander’s best friend—he’s a constant fixture in Arthur’s life and also survives the pandemic, becoming an important member of the society of the Severn City Airport. In his youth, Clark was an aspiring actor but never found success in the field. Clark turns to corporate work and becomes frustrated by the monotony and meaninglessness of his daily life. His friendship with Arthur also becomes strained as the two live increasingly different lives—Clark observes that Arthur has grown self-centered and artificial, and is disappointed in Arthur’s choices, especially concerning women. Arthur, on the other hand, finds himself bored with Clark, a remark that is unfortunately published in the book of letters “Dear V.” The two do love each other, though, and despite its difficulties, their friendship survives until Arthur’s death. Because of Clark’s relative normalcy compared to the rest of Arthur’s celebrity friends, he has a soft spot for Miranda and is kind to her, although the two are never close.
When the apocalypse happens, Clark is luckily stranded at the uninfected Severn City Airport, which becomes a small society of about 50 people. The society is self-sufficient and grows in population as the years pass. Clark spends much of his time on projects of survival, such as gathering firewood and skinning deer, but he’s also witness to the radicalization of Elizabeth and Tyler, who become fervently and dangerously religious as a way to cope with the apocalypse. Clark is disturbed by their lunacy, and tries to reason with them, but he’s too focused on maintaining his own mental health to become overly involved. He later feels some guilt for not taking better care of Tyler when the boy and his mother leave the airport to join a band of religious travelers.
Clark becomes a central figure tied to the novel’s theme of preserving and protecting beauty. The pandemic separated Clark from his boyfriend Robert, who was a curator, and Clark eventually starts a project called the Museum of Civilization in the airport as a way to honor Robert’s memory and preserve human history. Similar to Jeevan, Clark finds a life purpose in the new world that he never had in the old one. The Museum is meaningful to Clark and to those living in the airport, and its existence marks the Severn City Airport as a truly functioning human society rather than simply a group of people banded together for survival. In a profound turn of events, Clark even sees an object from his old life find its way to the Museum—the Station Eleven comics. It’s fitting that the novel ends with Clark reading the comics, reflecting on his past life while also imagining a hopeful future, as his life has been a testament to finding ways to build bridges between the old world and the new one.
