Photo by Collin Richie
Age: 42
Occupation: Coroner, East Baton Rouge Parish
Hometown: Baton Rouge
By April Capochino Myers
For someone surrounded by so much death, Dr. Beau Clark exudes life.
Signature: EBRP Coroner Dr. Beau Clark
Age: 42
Occupation: Coroner, East Baton Rouge Parish
Hometown: Baton Rouge
By April Capochino Myers
For someone surrounded by so much death, Dr. Beau Clark exudes life.
He’s the East Baton Rouge Parish Coroner, and most people will only meet him once. By definition, he is the death inquisitor. His office investigates 3,000 deaths each year.
“One percent of the population dies annually and one-third are from natural causes, in a hospital or doctor’s care,” Clark says. “Everything else lives in the coroner’s world.”
His world is inside of the East Baton Rouge Parish Coroner’s Office, down a dusty dirt road behind the Baton Rouge Metropolitan Airport where large white coroner vans line the parking lot.
His office is large, bright and tidy, with the obligatory framed family photo—wife and two children—and LSU sports paraphernalia. In the lobby of the building, a giant framed headshot of Clark hangs on the wall.
His job is dealing with unexplained death, which often means fielding middle-of-the-night phone calls about homicides from local media, filling out death certificates and sometimes helping explain death to those filming TV shows and movies in Baton Rouge.
“The movie industry will call us and ask us about certain things,” he says. “That new TV show Scream that they’re filming here spent the whole day with us.”
It’s easy to want Clark to be someone he’s not: a grim reaper of sorts—a gloomy, cynical, death witness who dresses all in black.
But Clark is energetic and easy to talk to. He is a bow-tie wearing, high-intensity loving, emergency-room-trained doctor. He begins each day with an early six-mile run, and his bright blue eyes light up when talking about the military and all things patriotic.
He could pass for a mayor or a governor, except he often wears scrubs to work. Instead of books, boxes of cremated remains, line the shelves of his investigators’ office, and working in the morgue is part of his job description.
In 2011, Clark was elected coroner after running on the recommendation of some police friends. Before that, the ER physician spent eight years merging his medical training with tactical training, working alongside SWAT teams in and around Baton Rouge.
“I never thought about being in this position before then,” he says. “But actually, it all makes sense. Coroners use medical forensic knowledge to rule out if a crime had happened.”
While investigating the cause of death is a huge part of his job, the coroner’s office is also responsible for evaluating mental health patients who may be a risk to themselves or others and collecting sexual assault forensic evidence. And Clark still practices medicine. Once a week he works in the emergency room at St. James Parish Hospital in Lutcher.
His ER training is what keeps him grounded. Even though he spends more time with the deceased, Clark’s favorite part of the job is helping answer questions for those left behind.
“Even though a person is deceased,” he says, “their whole family needs us.”
