Clark was born in
Plainview, Texas and endured a difficult childhood. He dropped out of high school after being suspended, and spent four years in the
Navy. Clark began taking night courses at
Tulane University's University College, where despite his lack of a high school diploma, he was able to earn enough credits to be admitted to the
University of New Orleans. There, Clark earned a
Bachelor's degree and a
Master's degree in
physics, and then a
PhD in
computer science from the
University of Utah in 1974. Clark served as an assistant professor at the
University of California, Santa Cruz from 1974 to 1978, and then as an associate professor of electrical engineering at
Stanford University from 1979 to 1982.
Clark's research work concerned
geometry pipelines, specialized software or hardware that accelerates the display of three dimensional images. The zenith of his group's advancements was the
Geometry Engine, an early technology for rendering highly graphical computer images he developed in 1979 with his students at Stanford.
In 1982, Jim Clark and Abbey Silverstone along with several
Stanford graduate students formed
Silicon Graphics, Inc. The earliest Silicon Graphics graphical
workstations were mainly terminals, but soon newer models were stand-alone graphical
UNIX workstations with very fast graphics rendering hardware.
During the mid-1980s, Silicon Graphics bought
chipmaker MIPS, Inc. and used the
MIPS CPU as the foundation of their newest workstations, replacing the
Motorola 68000. Soon, Silicon Graphics became the world leader in the production of
Hollywood movie visual effects and 3-D imaging. Silicon Graphics did not rely on high sales as they could charge more for their special high-end hardware and special graphics software.
However, by the early 1990s, Clark had a falling out with Silicon Graphics management and got the itch to start a completely new and different enterprise. In 1994, Clark and
Marc Andreessen, the co-creator of the
World Wide Web browser
Mosaic, founded
Netscape. The founding of Netscape was a pivotal point that helped launch the
Internet IPO boom on
Wall Street during the mid to late 1990s, and Clark reaped the financial benefits of the Internet boom. Just as the Internet boom was about to completely bust, Clark got the urge to move on again.
In 1998, Jim Clark came up with the idea of streamlining the insurance hassles and paperwork associated with the healthcare industry. He came up with the idea of a company that would help make access to more efficient healthcare easier. Although his original idea was a bit too ambitious, it did lead some inroads in administrative streamlining of medical records technology, but an
Atlanta, Georgia startup company,
WebMD, was already making inroads toward the same goal. Knowing that WebMD had financial backing from
Microsoft, Clark decided to merge his newest startup, Healtheon, with the original WebMD to form the current WebMD Corporation. WebMD also provides a vast resource of online, reliable health information on the
Internet.
In 1999, Jim Clark launched
myCFO - a company formed to help wealthy Silicon Valley individuals manage their fortunes. While Jim Clark served on the
Board of Directors most of myCFO's operations were sold to Harris Bank in late 2002 and now the successor operates as Harris myCFO or
Harris/myCFO.
Clark was chairman and financial backer of network security startup company Neoteris, founded in 2000, which was acquired by
NetScreen in 2003 and subsequently by
Juniper Networks.
Clark was a director and investor in biotechnology company DNA Sciences, founded in 1998, which went bankrupt and was acquired by Genaissance Pharmaceuticals Inc. in 2003.
In the Fall of 2005 Clark, along with
David Filo of
Yahoo!, each donated $30 million to Tulane University's School of Engineering for merit based scholarships to provide education to deserving students regardless of financial situation in the discipline of engineering. However, after Tulane's restructuring that saw the elimination of nearly all engineering disciplines, the board requested Clark and Filo allow the funds to be used for other programs.
Jim Clark was the main subject of the 1999 bestseller
The New New Thing: A Silicon Valley Story by US author
Michael Lewis. ISBN 0-340-76699-9
Clark is the father-in-law of
Chad Hurley, cofounder of
YouTube.
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