During ICC 2023 in Cape Town, Derek Clarke received the ICA Honorary Fellowship. Below you can read the laudatio by ICA Vice-President Andrés Arístegui:
Dr Derek Clarke served two terms as ICA Vice President, from 2007 to 2011 and from 2011 to 2015. Since 2015, he has been a member of the ICA Statutes Committee. As a native English speaker, he was able to formulate statutes and by-laws that clearly represented the intent of the Executive Committee, while his career in government provided him with appropriate vocabulary to word the sometimes complex and delicate issues. Dr Clarke presented neutral and correctly formulated proposals, but also did not shy away from rejecting impossible requests from the Executive. His many years of involvement in the ICA provided the necessary context.
Dr Clarke was instrumental in organizing two International Cartographic Conferences in South Africa, the only two International Cartographic Conferences ever to be hosted on the African continent. He chaired the Local Organising Committee of the ICC 2003, held in August 2003 in Durban, South Africa, and he led the bid for this ICC in Cape Town and serves as treasurer on the Local Organising Committee.
Dr Clarke initiated the Mapping Africa for Africa initiative, which was endorsed by the ICA in 2003, and subsequently by CODIST-Geo (now called UN-GGIM: Africa). He also chaired the ICA Working Group on Mapping Africa for Africa.
Finally, Dr Clarke was involved in the South Africa National Committee of the ICA for several decades. He has been a member of the South African National Committee of the ICA for more than 34 years, and was chair of this Committee for 24 years. In this capacity, he represented South Africa at seven ICA General Assemblies and one Extraordinary General Assembly in 2017.
It is a great honor for the ICA to award Derek Clarke his well-deserved ICA Honorary Fellowship for his lifelong contribution.
