Wallace & Turner Partner Patrick Field
Longtime Clark State Community College supporter and advocate for education, Patrick Field, was presented with Clark State’s Founder’s Award at the 25th Anniversary Circle of Friends Gala on September 29, 2018. The Clark State Circle of Friends created the Founder’s Award in 2004 to recognize and honor individuals and organizations who have contributed significantly to the success and sustainability of the Performing Arts Center.
Patrick is a partner at Wallace and Turner Insurance and owner of Coppertop Restaurant in Urbana. He has also been a supporter and mentor for the Champion City Scholars program since the inception of the program and initiated the start-up of the Champaign County Scholars program which welcomed its first class this school year.
“I am incredibly humbled,” said Patrick. “My relationship with the PAC goes back to day one. My dad was on the Clark State Board of Trustees at the time. I distinctly remember opening night and praying for the paint to dry in time.”
Field’s father, John Field, received the Founder’s Award in 2006. “As a son, I don’t know if there is anything better you can do than look through the list of names and see your father’s name and know how proud you were of him and what it meant to him,” he said.
Field said just to have his name associated with the list of Founder’s Award recipients is an incredible honor. “A lot of those people made a lot of things possible at the PAC and in Springfield,” he said. “Growing up with my dad on the Board…I consider the entity of Clark State a friend.”
Field’s passion for education has led him to support numerous students and schools in the community, in addition to Clark State. He hopes to see the Scholars program expanded to more schools and students in the area.
“Arts to me is a rounding piece of education,” said Field. “Education creates opportunities, the arts enhance those opportunities and create a better person. I believe the greatest out-of-the-box thinkers were somehow connected to the arts. If I had to define Clark State, they are building better people by creating better opportunities.”