Wednesday, June 29, 2005

LEXINGTON Thomas Dionysius Clark, 101, died June 28, 2005, in Lexington.

The Louisville, Miss., native was Kentuckys historian laureate and a renowned scholar and teacher at the University of Kentucky from 1931-1968. He earned a bachelors degree in 1928 from University of Mississippi, a masters in 1929 from UK and a doctorate in 1932 from Duke University. At UK, he headed the department of history from 1942-1965. He also served as a faculty member of the Board of Trustees. Over 37 years, he taught more than 20,000 students and trained and mentored several generations of doctoral candidates in history, a number of whom were to attain professional distinction of their own. From 1968-1973, he was a distinguished professor of history at Indiana University, where he wrote Indiana University: Midwestern Pioneer. He was a visiting professor at many universities, including Duke, North Carolina, Louisville, Chicago, Wisconsin, Harvard, Washington and Stanford. His overseas assignments included stays at both Salzburg and Vienna in Austria, at Oxford University and in India, Greece and Yugoslavia.

From the early 1930s, Clark wrote or edited more than 30 books on the American South, the Westward Movement and Kentucky. His Exploring Kentucky, written with Lee Kirkpatrick, was for many years a textbook in the public schools. Among his other works were The Emerging South, A History of Kentucky, The Kentucky, Pills, Petticoats and Plows, and The Peoples House

Clark received many honors, including the presidencies of both the Southern Historical Association and the Organization of American Historians. He later served the OAH as its executive secretary. He was a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Omicron Delta Kappa and of Phi Alpha Theta honorary society in history.

Throughout his career, Clark tirelessly nurtured and promoted the UK Librarys manuscript collections, University Press of Kentucky, Kentucky State Archives and the Kentucky Historical Society. Having been named Clark was the keynote speaker at countless public events and occasions. His remarks typically cited the great progress attained by Kentucky since the beginning of the 20th century, then stressed the unfulfilled goals to which he believed the Bluegrass State should aspire.

Besides his academic career, Clark was both a conservationist and a commercial tree farmer, subjects addressed in his book, The Greening of the South.

Funeral will be at 1 p.m. Friday at First United Methodist Church in Lexington. Visitation will be from 10 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. Friday at the church. W.R. Milward Mortuary, Broadway, is in charge of arrangements.

Expressions of sympathy may take the form of contributions to the Thomas D. Clark Center for Kentucky History, 100 W. Broadway, Frankfort, KY 40601 or Lexington History Museum, 215 W. Main St., Lexington, KY 40507.

Survivors include his wife of 62 years, Elizabeth Turner Clark; a son, Thomas Bennett Clark of Lexington; a daughter, Elizabeth Clark Stone of Bowling Green; a brother, Ernest Clark of Dallas; two sisters, Wilma Sanders and Ethel Atkinson, both of Louisville, Miss.; three grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren.  Daily News ·813 College St. ·PO Box 90012 ·Bowling Green, KY ·42102 ·270-781-1700