Former trustee and Clark benefactor Allen Glick ’63 has died

Allen Glick ’63, who served as a member of Clark University’s Board of Trustees for 14 years and established a successful auto dealership business in the Worcester region, died on March 12, 2023.

Glick was inspired by his own family in building his business. His grandfather came to the United States from Russia, penniless, and worked his way from being a junk hauler, and then a mill owner, to becoming one of the largest owners of buildings and parking lots in downtown Worcester.

That work ethic was passed to Allen’s father, Selig, and then to Allen.

“I truly think the best thing my father ever did was to never spoil me. He made sure that I worked hard and earned an honest week’s pay,” Glick once told a reporter. “There is no magic to succeeding; you just need to dedicate yourself to succeeding.”

Glick first joined the Board of Trustees as an alumni-elected trustee from 1987 to 1993, and then as a board appointment from 1993 to 1997. He rejoined the board in 2001 and served on the Audit, Major Gifts, and Investment committees, and as chair of the Audit Committee for several years.

In 1973, he established The Lillian and Selig Glick Scholarship Fund in honor of his parents, followed by the Allen M. Glick Chair in Judaic and Biblical Studies, in 1996. He most recently established the Dr. William E. Topkin ’60, M.A. Ed. ’63, Ed.D. ’67, Scholarship Fund in honor of his cousin, who is a former dean of students at Clark and a Clark trustee emeritus. Throughout the years, Glick also helped to build the Dolan Field House, Higgins University Center, and the Traina Center for the Arts, and generously supported the exhibition “Painting in the Shadow of the Plague: Italy, 1500-1750,” which Clark helped to organize at the Worcester Art Museum.

The Clark University Alumni Association presented Glick with the Distinguished Alumni Award in 2013. At the presentation, Everett Fox, the Allen M. Glick Professor of Judaic and Biblical Studies, said, “At a time in his life when he could have ridden off into the sunset, Allen has remained a steadfast, loyal and totally involved contributor to all facets of Clark. Without Allen’s caring and generosity, I could not do the work that I do, I could not do the research that I do, I could not teach the courses that I do.”

Glick received his B.A. in marketing with departmental honors from Clark in 1963, where he was also a member of the Kappa Phi fraternity and a staff member of The Pasticcio. He went on to own and operate Glick Nissan, a group of five automobile dealerships in the Framingham, Massachusetts, area from 1968 until 1999.

Glick leaves his wife, Iris Glick; sister, Wendy Glick; and many cousins and extended family members.