Building the Cornerstone: Vinnie B. Clark and Geography: 1878–1971

Our research documents the contributions of Vinnie Clark to the establishment of the Department of Geography at San Diego State University. We begin with a description of Clark's early environment, her education at the Oshkosh State Normal School, the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and her teaching career in that region. We then follow her to the State Normal School of San Diego and through its transition to a teachers college and San Diego State College. We note how Clark influences the hiring of Alvena Suhl Storm and we review their working relationship. We include Clark's communication with Carl Sauer, and offer some reasons for her decision to resign from the college in 1937. We conclude with an assessment of Clark's legacy in the development of the Department of Geography at San Diego State University.