By Courtney Dentch
When Flushing native Lance Clark played as a shooting guard for the University of New Haven's basketball team, he was determined to balance his game with the chemotherapy treatments targeting a cancerous tumor at the base of his brain.
But when Clark, now 26, donned a cap and gown for his 1999 commencement ceremony, he was mistakenly told he was two credits shy of earning his degree.
Last week after he had undergoing numerous operations and radiation courses to battle the relentless disease, the university corrected the error and awarded a bachelor's of arts in communications to Clark in his bed at the Comfort Care Hospice Unit at the Margaret Tietz Center for Nursing Care in Jamaica.
“This degree has been earned,” said John Fryer, the university's director of multicultural affairs, who presented Clark with his diploma. “This is not something that we're making a special effort to give him.”
Clark, a former most valuable player at Forest Hills High School, juggled school, basketball and his brain cancer treatments after the malignant tumor was found at the base of his brain in 1997 in his sophomore year of college, said his mother, Wendy Clark. But despite his hard work, administrators at the University of New Haven in Connecticut believed Clark was two credits short of the 128 required for graduation, Fryer said.
In fact, Clark actually exceeded the requirements by one credit, he said.
“One of his regrets was that he didn't have his degree to hang on the wall next to mine,” said Wendy Clark.
Clark, who grew up in the Colden Apartments in Flushing, has undergone 10 brain surgeries to get rid of the cancer but the disease has progressed, leaving him unable to speak or move. He has been hospitalized since June and moved to the hospice in Jamaica at the end of February.
But through all the medical procedures, Clark kept his focus on school and returning to the basketball court, Wendy Clark said.
“He never stayed out of school,” she said. “He kept going back to play ball. He didn't skip a beat.”
His Charger teammates were impressed by Clark's determination and ability to keep playing despite the pain he was suffering from the cancer and the treatments, said Stephen Bynum, the team's power forward.
“He made us not think about what was happening and just think about the game,” said Bynum, who graduated in 1999 with Clark. “He didn't come back as physically strong as he was. He came back to work on it and get back to where he was. He said, 'If you guys aren't going to hit me, I don't want to play.'”
Jim O'Connor, Clark's coach while he was on the Chargers, was scheduled to come to see Clark earn his degree, but he was unable to make it, Wendy Clark said.
Clark always had a positive attitude, said Sheraud Taylor, 27, who grew up in Flushing with Clark.
“Lance is a good guy,” Taylor said. “He's the best person you'd want as a friend. No matter how things seem bleak he'll find a way to make you laugh.”
Although the cancer has severely limited Clark's speech, he was able to make out a “thank you” to Fryer for delivering the degree.
“You did it sweetie, you did it,” Wendy Clark told her son.
Reach reporter Courtney Dentch by e-mail at TimesLedger@aol.com, or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 138.
