CLARK, Thomas D. 1903-2005

(Thomas Dionysious Clark)

OBITUARY NOTICE—See index for CA sketch: Born July 14, 1903, in Louisville, MS; died June 28, 2005, in Lexington, KY. Historian, educator, and author. A retired University of Kentucky professor, Clark contributed so much scholarly work to the history of Kentucky that he was named the state's historian laureate for life in 1990. A 1929 graduate of the University of Mississippi, he went on to complete his master's degree at the University of Kentucky in 1929 and his Ph.D. at Duke University in 1932. After briefly teaching at what is now Memphis State University, and at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, he joined the University of Kentucky staff in 1931 as an instructor. Clark would spend the rest of his academic career there, becoming a full professor of history and head of his department from 1942 until his retirement in 1965. Despite his official retirement, he continued to be an active presence on the campus as Hallam Professor for the next three years, and thereafter was still often seen at the university. His interest in Kentucky history helped make his university the most notable center for the state's study, and Clark was also noted for convincing the state governor to advocate for the establishment of the history archive there. In addition to his teaching and research, Clark was a prolific author, publishing over forty books, most of which focus on Kentucky or Southern history. Among his many works are The History of Kentucky (1937; revised edition, 1960), The Emerging South (1961; second edition, 1968), Agrarian Kentucky (1978), and A History of Laurel Country: An Account of the Emergence of a Frontier Kentucky Appalachian Community into a Modern Commercial Industrial Rural-Urban Center (1989). In addition to being named historian laureate, Clark was honored a month after his death when the Kentucky History Center was renamed in his honor.

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Kentucky Post (Covington, KY), June 29, 2005.

New York Times, June 30, 2005, p. A23.