“Goals help you to organize your resources and allow you to
choose where you want to go in life. Without goals, you don’t go anywhere.”

-Clifford J. Lawrence

At an early age, Dr. Lawrence began setting the goals that would shape his life. By the time he reached his middle school years, he had already decided to go to college.

“I knew I wanted a good life and I realized an education would provide more opportunities for me,” he said.

Dr. Lawrence was the first person in his family to go to college. Initially, he majored in business. During his junior year, however, the Korean War started, and he enlisted in the Air Force. It was there that he had the opportunity to be an instructor and discovered his interest in teaching. After his military service, Dr. Lawrence completed his senior year of college as an education major, graduating with his teaching credentials.

In 1955, Dr. Lawrence accepted a fifth grade teaching position with the Clark County School District. It was the beginning of what would become 27 successful years in the field of education.

After teaching in elementary school, Dr. Lawrence went on to serve as an assistant principal, elementary school principal, coordinator of elementary education, director of schools, associate superintendent of instruction, and deputy superintendent with the Clark County School District. He completed the last five years of his career as the superintendent of schools in Carson City, Nevada.

Two accomplishments that he particularly looks upon with pride are his involvement in the development of the sixth grade center integration program that peacefully brought desegregation to Las Vegas in the turbulent 60’s, and the initial organization and development of the area’s first public television station, Channel 10.

In addition to his contributions to the field of education, Dr. Lawrence was active in a variety of community organizations, including the United Way, Las Vegas Rotary Club, Junior League of Las Vegas, and the Southern Nevada Museum Board.

This lifetime of achievement, during which he earned the reputation for being fair, honest, straightforward, and open, led to his successful nomination for a school district facility.

“We spend our whole lives doing the best we can and when others notice,” said Dr. Lawrence, “it feels good.”

Dr. Lawrence was particularly pleased that the facility named in his honor was a middle school. “This is the age when students can really begin to think about what they want to have happen in their lives,” he said. “It’s a good time to ask, ‘Where do I want to be in five to ten years? What do I want my life to be like when I’m my parents’age? How do I make that happen?

Middle school is also the age, he says, in which children begin to discover who they are. “I’ve never met a student who didn’t excel at something. It’s important to try different things and find out what you’re good at. You build self-confidence when you can say, ‘I may not be the best basketball or football player, but there is something I do very well.’”

He encouraged students to explore and to set goals. “The goals may change as you learn about yourself, but by setting them and working toward them, you discover where your talents lie and you move forward.”

The goals can be in all areas of life from personal to financial. By working toward and achieving them, over time a series of successes helps to create a life one can look upon with pride, as demonstrated by Dr. Lawrence.