William Arthur, Ph D CLARK

1853 - 1918

Prof. William A. Clark
Dies at Kirksvile, MO.

Word was received late last Wednesday afternoon from Kirksville, Mo., that Prof. William A. Clark former instructor in the National Normal University at Lebanon but lately of the Missouri State Normal, had passed away. No futher word has been received and relatives here are at a loss to know the cause of his death.
The following account of Prof. Clark is taken from the "Who's Who in America:"
"William Arthur Clark, psychologist, was born at Manchester, Ohio, May 23, 1853; son of Samuel Elison and Sarah Ann (Kirker) Clark, was educated at the National Normal University, Lebanon, Ohio, 1871 - 72 and 1883 - 85 receiving the degree A. B. 1885.
"He was a teacher and superintendent of public schools in Ohio from 1872 - 81. Superintendent Ohio Soldiers' and Sailors' orphans Home School, Xenia, 1881 - 83; Professor of Philosophy Western Normal College, Lincoln, Nebr., 1894 - 95; Teacher of Pedogogy, Nebraska State Normal School, Peru, Nefr., 1905 - 12; and head professor of education and psychology in Missouri State Normal School since September, 1912.
"He married Irene Holbrook at Lebanon, Ohio, July 28, 1886. He was the author of several workers on education.
"After leaving Lebanon Prof. Clark attended Haward University where he received the degree of Ph. D. from the University of Chicago in 1900 and the degree of I L D from Hasting's College, Nebraska in 1912."

Western Star 21 November 1918

The following is taken from "A biographical and Genealogical History of Southeastern Nebraska, Volume 1," by Lewis Publishing Company, 1904.

William Arthur Clark, President of the Nebraska State Normal School at Peru, has a useful and creditable record as an educator, beginning with the teaching of his first school when he was fifteen years old. Many years of experience in schools of all grades from the old-fashioned 'deestrict' temple of learning to the foremost institutions of higher learning in this country, have broadened his intellectual horizon and fortified his powers for the responsible position which he now holds and for the career that still awaits him - now in the prime of his life and with his years of greatest unefulness before him. Education's progress and advancement are the causes dearest to his heart and the goal of his ambition, and he has found a broad and ample field in his place as head of one of the most important educational training centers in the State of Nebraska, a commonwealth noted for its high intellectual standards and its wide diffusion of literacy culture among the people. In the short time that Dr. Clark has been connected with the Nebraska State Normal he has not only maintained the high standarad set by his predecessors by his noticeably increased it educational efficiency in all departments.

Dr. Clark was reared in Ohio. At the age of eleven, soon after his father's death, he entered the high school at West Union, Adams County, and graduated from there at the age of fourteen. In his fifteenth year, he secured a country school and taught six months for forty dollars a month. Following this early pedagogical experience, he entered the Normal University of Ohio, from which he was graduated at the age of nineteen years. He taught a country school and also a village school, then became principal of his home high school, and for several years was principal or superintendent of town schools. In 1880 he was appointed superintendent of the school of the Ohio Sailors' Orphans' Home at Xenia, and filled that position for two years. He was then called to his alma mater, the Normal University, as teacher of mathematics, and during the ten years that he filled that chair, over fourteen thousand pupils, from all parts of the Union, received instruction from him and many of these have in turn become teachers and filled other worthy places in the world's activity.

In 1893 Dr. Clark resigned his position in the Normal University and entered Harvard University as a graduate student in mathematics, but left before the end of the year in order to become dean of the faculty of the Western Normal College at Lincoln, Nebraska, where he spent one year as teacher of psychology and pedagogy, and a most busy year it was, for he delivered addresses in eighty-one of the ninety counties of the state, in addition to other duties. From Lincoln, he came to Peru and accepted the position of instructor in psychology and pedagogy in the State Normal, holding this from 1895 to 1898. In the latter year, he returned to Harvard and took work in pedagogy, psychology, and philosophy. In 1899 Harvarad University awarded him the degree of A. M. In the same year, he was appointed to the fellowship in pedagogy in the University of Chicago, and in connection with his duties in that position taught educational psychology. He received the degree of Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1900, the subject of his Doctor's thesis being 'Suggestion in Education.'

Dr. Clark was elected to the presidency of the Peru State Normal in 1900. He is an active member of the National Educational Association, is a member of the Nebraska Academy of Science, of the American Association for the Teaching of Speech to Deaf-mutes, and of the American Social Science Association.

Dr. Clark is the author of several small outline text-books on arithmetic, geography and physiology; also magazine articles on educational topics. He is at present writing a work on 'Suggestion in Education' which will be an expansion of his Doctor's thesis.

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Contributed on 2/2/16 by hawkinsdonna48
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