Building Service Workers Award Honoree Ed Clark: 'The Job's Been Good to Me'

Ed Clark, 62, has been working at 850 Park Avenue for a quarter of the building’s lifetime. He started in 1995, and the building was built in 1915. He has been a doorman, handyman and super. And that’s after switching careers from being in the wholesale grocery beverage business. It was a family business, but after his brother passed away unexpectedly he had to make other plans. He drove a truck for an oil company for a while, but that was only a seasonal position.

Then one day, while visiting his mother-in-law at the hospital and wearing the oil company uniform, Clark was stopped by a woman who recognized the company and asked what he would do during the off-season. Clark said he didn’t know and the woman, whose father worked for an oil company, suggested applying to some management companies. When his trucking job ended, Clark went to Douglass Elliman, found out they needed someone to help out at 930 Park Avenue, and got a job there the next day. “And that’s how I got in this line of work,” he says.

Clark loves his job, but says the hardest part is having to have his phone on all the time in case of an emergency. He’s met Bill Gates and numerous other celebrities who’ve been visiting the building’s tenants. “The job’s been good to me,” he says. 850 Park Avenue has about 42 units and three doctor’s offices. Some of the kids he watched growing up in the building are now having kids of their own. He says his favorite part of the job is the “good group of guys” he works with. He has about 13 workers that he considers friends.

In his down time, Clark enjoys spending time at his country house in Connecticut, and has used what he has learned about construction to help fix issues there. He’s looking forward to retirement at some point in the future, and is interested in exploring his love for cooking. His first jobs were in kitchens and he fell in love with it. At home, he likes making Italian food and just about anything on the grill.

He grew up in Brooklyn, one of seven children, the son of a tool-and-dye maker. Clark remembers his father as one of the smartest guys he ever met. He has a daughter, and has been married since 1987.