IN MEMORY OF ALFRED S. CLARK

 

Born in Fincastle, Virginia, June 21, 1893 Died in New York City, N.Y., January 9, 1937

 

Alfred S. Clark came to Guatemala from Mexico City, early in 1917 as General Sales Manager of the “Aguila Oil Co.”, now the “Royal Dutch Shell Co.” During the years he was connected with the Aguila Oil Co., he made a host of friends.
Guatemala had fascinated him from the very beginning, with its beauty, quaintness and color. He traveled the entire country, which was then practically roadless, on mule-back and where possible by stagecoaches.

Mr. Clark had the foresight to visualize that Guatemala, with its ancient lure, had enormous possibilities for tourist travel, if the American traveling public could be informed properly of the many wonderful attractions it has to offer. He proceeded by dint of energy and hard work to get Guatemala publicized. He persuaded the high officials of the Grace Line Steamship Company to feature a one-day stop over at San José de Guatemala on the Pacific Ocean, and bring the passengers up to Guatemala City via Palín and Antigua for one day. This one-day tour soon became, as Mr. Clark anticipated, the Grace Line’s “highlight” for the “Santa” fleet, cruising from San Francisco to New York via the Panama Canal and vice-versa. The five hundred tourists per mount who made the one-day trip to Guatemala during the five years the “Santa” fleet called at San José, because enthusiastic advertisers for Guatemala.

Mr. Clark’s dreams had conceived higher ideals. He had often written friends and had asked them to come and enjoy one glorious week in Guatemala”. That was it! “One Week’s Tour.”

The United Fruit Company’s executives to the convincing words of Mr. Clark, and as a result, the S.S. “Zacapa” brought on December 23rd, 1934, the first “United Fruit Company Tour” from New Orleans. From then on, the number of tourists increased. It was an easy thing for the “White Fleet” to do, and they were going to do it—and they have. The “White Fleet” now operates Guatemala Tours from seven to twenty-six days, out of New York, Philadelphia, Boston and New Orleans.
The next thing that confronted Mr. Clark was how could he accommodate this great flow of tourists into Guatemala, land of enchantment, virgin country, unspoiled, untouched by the hordes of sightseers; unknown, unheard of, not yet discovered by world travelers.