Doctor Howard Clark was a Human scientist and anthropologist who served as the director of the Federation science station on Ventax II.
In 2367, Clark sent out a distress call when a mob of Ventaxians were trying to break into the station. The USS Enterprise-D responded to his request for assistance, and Clark was beamed to safety. However, the rest of his science team was taken hostage.
Aboard the Enterprise, Clark explained to Captain Picard that the Ventaxians believed they were doomed due to the return of Ardra, a devil in Ventaxian theology.
When Picard and his away team intervened on the planet's surface, they were able to arrange the release of the three hostages, by order of Ardra.
Following the hostages' release, Clark sat in on the staff meeting discussing the situation, and possibility that Ardra was a fake. Clark suggested that perhaps the geological tremors the planet was experiencing were a result of a low-frequency tractor beam that was projected against the tectonic plates.
Clark later returned to the science station with Geordi La Forge so that the two could see if they could determine the origin of the tremors on Ventax. They were unable to make any headway in their investigation, until Ardra made the Enterprise "disappear", which created a sudden jump in z-particle readings. After additional sensor readings, Clark was able to assist La Forge in pinpointing the location of the disturbances, which was discovered to be a starship parked in orbit over the planet's western magnetic pole. (TNG: "Devil's Due")