By June Mathews
In 2021, Dr. Charles Clark of Mountain Brook was ready to retire. Forty years in a demanding neurosurgical practice, he figured, was enough. It was time to kick back and enjoy a more relaxing way of life.
Then something big happened to change his plans. Son Paul, who was finishing up a neurosurgical residency out-of-state, was interested in returning home to Birmingham and joining his father’s practice at Ascension St. Vincent’s.
The lure of spending a few years as a father-son neurosurgical team was too much to resist, so the senior Clark decided to put his retirement plans on hold and hang around for a while.
So, for Father’s Day last year, Charles got a new partner, and according to both father and son, the arrangement is working out well.
“It’s been great,” said Dr. Paul Clark. “Dad has 40 years of experience, so he’s seen and managed almost everything in neurosurgery. He’s always available to review a case with me or provide advice, and I have three other partners who do the same for me as well. There are different ways to approach a problem in neurosurgery and having that experience to tap into when making decisions has been invaluable.”
But, acknowledged Charles, having a young partner in the practice has advantages, too.
“He knows about new techniques, and I have experience,” he said. “And we usually agree about surgical treatment for patients.”
Career
While many fathers make a full-on effort to influence their sons to follow in their footsteps careerwise, Charles had little to do with his son’s decision to become a neurosurgeon. He said his only hope was that his son become “happy and successful in whatever he chose to do.” Paul was in charge of determining what that was.
The younger Clark first considered a future in biomedical engineering and, with that thought in mind, he earned a bachelor’s degree in the field.
“I was always math- and science-oriented in school,” he said. “But I initially couldn’t decide if I wanted to pursue medicine or engineering.”
Though he obviously didn’t follow the latter career path, Paul’s engineering background, his father believes, is helping him succeed as a neurosurgeon – that, plus intelligence and what Charles termed “good common sense.”
Paul is the youngest of three Clark children, and he is the only one to go into the medical field.
Even after Paul opted for a career in medicine, he felt no pressure from his father to choose neurology as a specialty. In fact, he once strongly considered plastic surgery as his calling.
“We never talked about medicine when I was growing up,” he said. “He came to baseball and basketball games, took my brothers and me golfing and to college football games. He never tried to influence us as to our career choices. He provided opportunities to us that we were very fortunate to have and let us make our own way and decision.”
When asked what makes the other a good doctor, the Clarks’ responses revealed a common dedication to patient care.
“He does the right thing and cares for the patients,” Charles said.
But Paul’s response said just as much about his father as a doctor as it did about his father as a father.
“He connects with his patients,” he said. “He is always thinking about what he would want for himself or his family and applies that to his patients.”
