David Clark
David F. Clark served as a firefighter and fire chief and fought fires with rural, suburban, and metropolitan fire departments. He became a field instructor and later a full-time instructor for the state fire academy (now the Illinois Fire Service Institute). As IFSI’s deputy director, he oversaw more than 600 instructors and staff, curriculum, training, academic, and research activities for the Institute, which has about 60,000 students per year from Illinois, the United States, and around the world.
He served as an instructor at the Fire Department Instructors Conference (FDIC) and numerous conferences and fire schools, provided technical assistance and review of several fire service books and videos, and is author of more than 20 articles in fire service journals. He participated in curriculum development and helped write training manuals for IFSI, Illinois’s Office of the State Fire Marshal (OSFM), the International Fire Service Training Association (IFSTA), and the National Fire Academy (NFA).
He holds degrees in history, fire science, and adult technical and vocational education. He served as a sergeant in the Army’s Third Infantry Regiment (Old Guard), on the Illinois Terrorism Task Force, and on the Central Illinois Critical Incident Stress Debriefing Team. He retired after 45 years in the fire service.
