RIP CLARK COLLINS – Last night, the OHV advocacy community lost one of its great champions and pioneers. For me, the passing of Clark Collins, co-founder and former executive director for the BlueRibbon Coalition, is a huge loss on both a personal and professional level.
In the mid 1980s, Clark saw a need for OHV recreationists to become substantively engaged in grassroots advocacy so as to have a voice in the national land-use debate and to challenge a barrage of trail closures by new Wilderness legislation or administrative non-motorized land classifications.
For some unexplained reason in 1990, Clark took me under his wing and became my mentor and friend. He made sure I knew that accepting the call to become a professional OHV advocate - as a career - would be filled with a lot of “challenges.”
I remember Clark as a Happy Warrior. He enjoyed the politics of OHV and encouraged me to develop my advocacy skill-sets by working on political campaigns, serving on boards, running for elected office, writing, working on legislation, supporting sustainable trail management programs, and working in a collaborative manner with diverse stakeholder groups.
I got a chance to visit with Clark over the phone several times where we had fun talking about old times such as hosting the Breakfast of Champions, working Capitol Hill, doing a trail ride, challenging bad travel decisions or defending good travel decisions in court, etc.
I know Clark really appreciated getting phone calls from many of you over the last few weeks that were in his large circle of close friends. I will post up more info as it becomes available.
Godspeed Clark Collins
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Don Amador, President
Quiet Warrior Racing/Consulting
555 Honey Lane
Oakley, CA 94561
Office: 925.625.6287
Cell: 925.783.1834
Email: damador@quietwarriorracing.com
Web: www.quietwarriorracing.com
Blog: http://quietwarriorracing.blogspot.com
ROHVA DriverCoach ID# 165931
Member, Society of Outdoor Recreation Professionals