Nicholas T. Clerk

He was born on 3 March 1930 in Adawso in the Eastern Region of Ghana. His father, Carl Henry Clerk (1895 - 1982) was an agricultural educator, journalist, editor and Presbyterian minister who was elected the fourth Synod Clerk of the Presbyterian Church of the Gold Coast from 1950 to 1954. Carl Clerk was also the Editor of the Christian Messenger, the news magazine of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana from 1960 to 1963. Nicholas Clerk's mother, Martha Ayorkor Quao (1912-1989) hailed from La and Ga Mashie. He had his primary education at Presbyterian schools at Kpong, Odumase Krobo, Somanya and Osu according to teaching positngs of his father. He attended the middle boarding school, The Salem School at Osu from 1942 to 1945. He had his secondary education at the Presbyterian Boys' Secondary School (Presec), Odumase-Krobo where he was the Senior Prefect in 1949. He received theology and pedagogy training at the Presbyterian Training College, Akropong. The college was founded by the Basel Mission in 1848 as the second oldest higher educational institution in West Africa after Fourah Bay College which was established in 1827. He won a colonial scholarship to study English Literature at the University of Leicester, then part of the University of London external system, receiving his honours bachelor's degree in 1955. In order to qualify as an education officer, he obtained his professional certification, a Postgraduate Certificate in Education, from the Institute of Education at the University College of Ghana, also an affiliate of the University of London external system at the time. He later attended the University of Southern California on a fellowship where he obtained a master’s degree and a doctorate in public administration. He also earned a diploma in theology from the Trinity Theological Seminary, Legon and was ordained a Presbyterian minister.

In his early career, he was a teacher at his alma mater, the Presbyterian Boys Secondary School (Presec), Odumase-Krobo, the Government Training College at Peki and Tamale and at the Department of Liberal Arts at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology. He was later recruited as a lecturer at the then newly established Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA), Greenhill, Legon in 1962 and rose through the ranks to become the Rector of the Institute. The location of GIMPA, "Greenhill", was named by Clerk. The name, "Greenhill", is a reference to the lush greenery and hilly topography of the main campus, as well as its location in Legon which was historically on the periphery of the Ghanaian capital, Accra.

He was re-assigned by the PNDC government to the Public Services Commission of Ghana and later became the Vice-Chairman. Between 1989 and 1990, he was appointed by the United Nations Development Programme to be the Chairman of the Public Services Commission of Uganda, a role in which he reviewed, reorganized and reformed the Ugandan public service. He performed similar roles in his capacity as a public services, management and health administration consultant in other African countries including Botswana, Kenya, Liberia, Morocco, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Tanzania and The Gambia. He worked with the Presbyterian Church of Ghana in a senior administrative capacity at its headquarters and was also a lecturer at the Trinity Theological Seminary, Legon where he taught church management and administration courses. For a long time, he was also the minister in charge of the Presbyterian church in Nungua.

Nicholas Timothy Clerk was a fourth generation member of the historically important Clerk family of Accra, Ghana. His paternal great-grandfather, Alexander Worthy Clerk (1820 - 1906), a Jamaican Moravian missionary who arrived in the Danish Protectorate of Christiansborg (now the suburb of Osu) in Accra in the Gold Coast in 1843, as part of the original group of 24 West Indian missionaries who worked under the auspices of the Basel Evangelical Missionary Society of Basel, Switzerland. A.W. Clerk was a pioneer of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana and a leader in education in colonial Ghana, establishing a boarding middle school, The Salem School in 1843. His paternal great-grandmother, Pauline Hesse was from the Gold Coast, and was of German and Ga-Dangme heritage. His grandfather was Nicholas Timothy Clerk (1862 -1961), a Basel-trained theologian and missionary who was the first Synod Clerk of the Presbyterian Church of the Gold Coast from 1918 to 1932. N. T. Clerk was a founding father of the all boys’ boarding high school, Presbyterian Boys’ Secondary School established in 1938. His grandmother, Anna Alice Meyer (1873 -1934) was of Ga-Dangme and Danish descent.

His uncle, Theodore S. Clerk (1909 -1965) was the first African architect of the Gold Coast who planned and developed the port city of Tema. His aunt, Matilda J. Clerk (1916 -1984) was the second Ghanaian woman to become a physician. His granduncle, Emmanuel Charles Quist (1880 -1959), a barrister and judge became the first African President of the Legislative Council from 1949 to 1951, Speaker of the National Assembly of the Gold Coast from 1951 to 1957, and Speaker of the National Assembly of Ghana from March 1957 to December 1957. He was also the cousin of Alexander Adu Clerk (born 1947), the sleep medicine specialist and psychiatrist.

Maternally, Clerk’s uncle was the Ghanaian barrister and judge, Nii Amaa Ollennu (1906 - 1986) who was elected the Speaker of the Parliament of Ghana during the Second Republic as well as serving as the Chairman of the Presidential Commission and acting President of Ghana from 7 August 1970 to 31 August 1970. His other maternal uncle was Nathan Quao (1915 - 2005), a diplomat, educationist and public servant who rose to become a presidential advisor on governance to the governments of several Heads of State of Ghana. In addition, his first cousin was the Ghanaian economist and diplomat, Amon Nikoi (1930 - 2002) who was the Governor of the Bank of Ghana from 1973 to 1977 and Finance minister from 1979 to 1981.

Clerk had six children including Nicholas T. Clerk, Jr. (born 1963), a consultant obstetrician-gynaecologist, with a specialty in ambulatory gynaecologyand Christine A. Clerk (born 1967), an epidemiologist and a malaria specialist. His younger brother is the Ghanaian botanist, George C. Clerk (born 1931). N. T. Clerk was also a trained pianist and a flautist.

He died on 22 September 2012 of natural causes. He was buried at the Basel Mission Cemetery at Osu, Accra.

• Clerk, N. T. (1972) Bureaucracy and the One-party State: Politics and Administrative Transformation in Ghana
• Clerk, N. T. & Dabi-Dankwa, S.N.O. (1988) Half a century of secondary school education by the Presbyterian Church : the story of Presbyterian Boys' Secondary School, Odumase Krobo / Legon golden jubilee, 1938-1988
• Clerk, N. T. (1990) Report of the Public Service Review and Reorganization Commission, 1989-1990 / Vol. 1, Main report. Entebbe: Ministry of Public Service and Cabinet Affairs