William S. Clark
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Dr. William Smith Clark (July 31, 1825 - March 9, 1886) was a professor, Massachusetts State Senator, third president of the Massachusetts Agricultural College (now the University of Massachusetts Amherst) and first vice president of Sapporo Agricultural College (Japan)
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[edit] Early life
William Smith Clark, the son of Dr. Atherton and Harriet (Smith) Clark, was born in Ashfield, Massachusetts.
He prepared at Williston Seminary, then attended Amherst College, graduating Phi Beta Kappa in the class of 1848. He then taught at Williston Seminary from 1848 to 1850, earning a Master of Arts degree from Amherst in 1851; and taught at the University of Göttingen from 1850 to 1852, earning his Doctor of Philosophy degree there in 1852.
[edit] Career
Clark was professor of chemistry at Amherst College from 1852 to 1867 and also of zoology from 1852 to 1858. This was interrupted by military service in which he served in the American Civil War; he was a Major in the 21st Massachusetts Volunteers in 1861, a Lieutenant-Colonel in 1862, and a Colonel from 1862 to 1863.
He was a member at large of the Massachusetts State Board of Agriculture from 1859-61; and was the president of the Hampshire Agricultural Society in 1860 and 1861, and later from 1871 to 1872.
He was a presidential elector and secretary of the electoral college in 1864; a member of the Massachusetts Legislature in 1864, 1865, and 1867; and a member ex officio, 1867 to 1879.
[edit] Japan
From 1867-1878, Clark was president of the Massachusetts Agricultural College (now The University of Massachusetts Amherst), and from 1876 to 1877, spent eight months at Sapporo Agricultural College (now Hokkaido University) in Japan as the founding vice-president. He taught his students not only academic subjects in science, but also lectured on the Bible as an "ethics" course, introducing Christian principles to the first entering class of the College. Although he was on a short government contract, he influenced many students, converting most of his students to Christianity, who in turn also influenced the students in the second entering class after Clark's departure. Some of them later played important roles in the fields of Christianity, education, and international relations in the continuation of Japan's modernization toward the beginning of the 20th century. Alumni such as Uchimura Kanzō (Christian thinker and evangelist) and Nitobe Inazo (Quaker, educator and diplomat), still well known nationwide in Japan, were from the second entering class of the College.
On the day of his departure, April 16th, 1877, Clark is supposed to have said to ten or so students who came to send him off, "Boys, be ambitious for Christ!". One of the students was apparently so moved that he remembered the phrase and later recited it in a lecture, making it the famous phrase it is in Japan today.
From 1880 to 1883 he was involved in mining industry. Clark was made a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1868. In 1874, Amherst awarded him an honorary Doctor of Laws degree.
[edit] Family and friends
In 1853, he married Harrietta K. Richards, adopted daughter of Samuel Williston. He had 11 children, though only 7 survived childhood. Among these, his eldest child and daughter, Emily Williston Clark, married F.W. Stearns, the son of prominent trader and department store owner R.H. Stearns.
Speculated to have been the mysterious "master" in many of Emily Dickinson's poems, who also lived in Amherst, Massachusetts and was no doubt acquainted with Clark as their families were two of the most prominent in the area.
He died in Amherst on March 9, 1886.
