DEERFIELD — It was nearly five months ago, but Ben Clark recalls each moment of the torrential July 21 downpours in crystal-clear detail: the pounding rain, the car tipping over on Lower Road and the feeling he had upon realizing someone was in the car.

“The only way I could describe it was like it was a scene from a disaster movie, where you see a car just drop,” Clark said, while sitting in his office at Clarkdale Fruit Farms last Thursday morning. “There was a moment where I was really hopeful that it was a car and somebody had gotten out and it was just abandoned and my heart sank when I yelled out … and she yelled back.”

As more than 4 inches of rain dumped on Deerfield in less than an hour that day, Clark, the Deerfield Fire District’s assistant chief, had been checking the Stillwater Bridge for flooding when a driver pulled up to tell him and a police officer that water had made its way onto Lower Road.

Upon arriving, Clark saw Greenfield resident Lee Oldenburg’s car tipping over a washed-out part of Lower Road, which then dropped into the rapidly rushing water that was heading toward the Deerfield River. Clark had called a rescue team, but determined it was too late to wait and made his way down the embankment, handed Oldenburg a life jacket and helped pull her out of the rapids, thus saving her life in the process.

For his actions on that July afternoon, along with what is becoming a lifetime of service to Deerfield, Franklin County and countless others around the state, Clark, 45, has been named the Greenfield Recorder’s 41st Citizen of the Year and he will be honored at Tuesday’s Franklin County Chamber of Commerce Breakfast at his high school alma mater, Deerfield Academy.

The Greenfield Recorder selects its Citizen of the Year through nominations submitted by its readers. The newspaper’s editorial board makes the final decision on who will be honored.

Roots planted in the orchard

As with many farmers, it all began for Clark as a kid. As the fourth generation of the Clarks on Upper Road, his early days were spent working with his parents, Tom and Becky Clark, at Clarkdale Fruit Farms.

While growing up and eventually attending Deerfield Academy as a day student, Clark saw civil service in both of his parents — his mom a parent-teacher association member and his dad on the Selectboard, Finance Committee and fire captain — and in their work on the community fixture that is the farm.

“I had those examples, and as I became more involved in the community here, it really was something that I appreciated,” he said. “It was all about community and giving back.”

Despite the constant exposure to farm life, Clark said his parents encouraged both him and his sister to follow their own path in life, which led him to a theater degree at Wesleyan University and a move out east to Boston and Providence, Rhode Island.

“It was nice that my parents never pressured me to have to continue carrying on the legacy,” he said, noting that his grandfather’s death in 2006 brought him back to Franklin County. “The Fire Department and the farming were really how I found the community again here and I didn’t realize what I was missing.”

After returning to the region and rejoining the Fire Department and the family farm, Clark married his wife, Lori, whom he had met in Providence, but didn’t reconnect with until later, and planted his own roots in Deerfield, where he now lives with Lori and his two kids, Emerson and Lio.

In the time since, Clark has served on Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture’s (CISA) board of directors, joined the Franklin County Chamber of Commerce’s board of directors, become president of the Massachusetts Fruit Growers Association, as well as Deerfield Academy’s board of trustees and the school’s building and grounds committee.

He regularly has Clarkdale run fundraisers for the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts and has participated for the past eight years in March for the Food Bank with Monte Belmonte, while also donating apples and other goods to the Center for Self Reliance in Greenfield and the Franklin Area Survival Center.

On top of all this, of course, is the family business, which is still running strong more than 100 years after its founding.

“We have multi-generational customers that come in and they’ll tell me that they came when they were a kid when their grandparents brought them and now they’re bringing their own kids and grandkids. So, it’s really nice to feel — and it’s a little cliche — rooted in the community,” he said. “I’m very happy to be able to carry on the legacy of the family farm.”

In juggling all these responsibilities, he thanked his family and the employees working at Clarkdale, but especially highlighted the support Lori, who is a visual and performing arts instructor at Deerfield Academy, has given him throughout his life.

“If you are going to be involved in the community, you need a supportive partner … it’s something that a lot of times people don’t see; the partners who are taking care of the kids and being home a lot of the times,” he said. “I’m very thankful that she’s supportive in that sense.”

Connection forged through rescue

In her nomination letter for Clark, Oldenburg highlighted the extreme risks he took that day to save her life and just how dire her situation was.

“I realized, I was going to drown. I grabbed my purse and threw it as hard as I could in hopes of reaching the above pavement. At this point, I realized that whoever found me could readily access information and identify my body,” Oldenburg wrote, describing how Clark came down the river embankment, even after losing some equipment in the rushing water, and made the decision to try and rescue her before help arrived. “He told me he called the tactical team but chose not to wait because he saw the car was filling with water again and was going to flip.”

“His confidence, courage, bravery and quick thinking saved my life, and his,” she continued. “He did not hesitate in any of his actions, even though he was at a great risk, he remained calm and focused.”

Beyond the events of July 21, Oldenburg expressed gratitude to Clark for not only keeping her identity anonymous in subsequent news media reports of the storm and rescue as she mentally recovered from the traumatic event, but for also checking in on her while she recovered from her injuries.

Clark said he had met Oldenburg before — she’s a customer at the farm — but didn’t know her well. After this experience, though, he said they’ve gotten to know each other a little more.

“Two days later I went to visit her in the hospital and that was pretty emotional for both of us, I’m just very thankful,” Clark said. “She probably feels the same way, our lives are sort of linked now … I feel a connection and I’ve seen her a few times since.”

Oldenburg’s husband, daughter and friend also nominated Clark for Citizen of the Year, as well as several other Deerfield residents, who praised him for the numerous community roles he takes on.

“Such an individual, who is driven to think continually beyond himself and offer so much to help and support his community, is truly my hero and one to many, many others,” Oldenburg wrote in closing. “Words fall so short to express my gratitude for the person he is. We are so fortunate to have him live, work and volunteer in our community.”

Chris Larabee can be reached at clarabee@recorder.com or 413-930-4081.