William S. Clark
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Dr. William Smith Clark (1825-1886), professor, Massachusetts senator, third president of the Massachusetts Agricultural College, Amherst, and first vice president of Sapporo Agricultural College, Japan.
Biography
William Smith Clark, the son of Dr. Atherton and Harriet (Smith) Clark, was born in Ashfield, Massachusetts, July 31, 1825.
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.
He 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: he was a Major in the 21st Massachusetts Volunteers in 1861; a Lieutenant-Colonel in 1862; and a Colonel from 1862 to 1863.
He and member at large of 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.
From 1867-1878 he was president of the Massachusetts Agricultural College, and from 1876 to 1877, spent time at Sapporo Agricultural College(Hokkaido University), Japan. He taught his students not only academic lectures but also Christian principles. Although it was a short stay, he influenced many students, leading them to Christian conversions. Some of them later played important roles in the field of Christianity, Education, and International Relations in the beginning of Modern Japan. Alumni such as Uchimura Kanzo(Christian thinker and evangelist) and Nitobe Inazo(Quaker) are still well known nationwide in Japan.
On the day of his departure, April 16th, 1877, Clark is supposed to have said to the around ten students that came to see him off "Boys, be ambitious!" and a few variations on that theme. One of those students was apparently so moved that he memorized the phrase and later used it in a lecture, making it the famous phrase it is in Japan today.
From 1880 to 1883 he was involved in mining. He died in Amherst, Massachusetts, on March 9, 1886.
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.
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.ja:ウイリアム・スミス・クラーク