Editor’s note: For full details on the accident and community reaction, see our update here.
VERGENNES — Rep. Greg Clark, 65, a long-time Republican legislator from Vergennes, was killed in a car crash this morning.
According to an email circulated at Vergennes Union High School, where Clark’s wife Eileen works as a paraprofessional, at about 7:45 a.m. on Friday Clark was driving on Woodman’s Hill on Route 7 in Waltham, just south of Vergennes when he was killed in a crash. No other details on the accident are available at this time.
Vermont State Police sent out word of the accident at 8:35 a.m., warning motorists to expect delays on Route 7 while troopers investigated the accident.
On Election Day Clark won his sixth consecutive term as a state representative for Vergennes, Waltham, Addison, Panton and Ferrisburgh. A part-time lawmaker, Clark also taught Social Studies at Mount Abraham Union High School in Bristol for more than 18 years.
Before joining the Legislature, Clark was a city councilor in Vergennes, where he served as deputy mayor.
In February 2011, Clark suffered a heart attack while in the capital region during the legislative session. He had heart surgery and missed a few months of work, but he returned to the Legislature that spring.
In his email to VUHS staff, Co-principal Peter Reynolds urged the adults at the school to listen to the students as they expressed their feelings on the tragic news.
“Thanks and hug someone,” he wrote.