Born in Louisville, Mississippi,[1] to a cotton farmer and a schoolteacher, Thomas Clark received his primary education in a neighborhood school to the third grade .
Even though Clark had but one class under Sydnor, British history, which wasn't even within his interests, the two had "deep conversations" about the rich heritage of the old South.
Clark "fell in love with learning" at that time, improved his use of the English language and began to develop writing and study habits that framed the disciplines through which he was to accomplish great things later in his life.
Clark had financed his education at Ole Miss with a cotton crop on land his father had given him but before he graduated the funds had all but run out.
It turned out that budding writer, William Faulkner, also having a hard time with finances, helped Clark tend the golf course.
Clark, through his new-found interest in history had begun attending meetings of the American Historical Association (AHA).
I took E. Merton Coulter of Georgia, John Oliver of Pittsburg, and Professor Lynch of Indiana out to see the new campus rising out of the ground and they became lifelong friends of mine.
I heard James Harvey Robinson deliver his presidential address ["The Newer Ways of Historians," American Historical Association 35 (January 1930)].
[for] the second time, which had an impact on me.At Duke, Clark centered his research on the American frontier, the development of Midwestern railroads, and slavery issues of the South.
At one point its star-studded faculty included Albert D. Kirwan, Clement Eaton, James F. Hopkins, Holman Hamilton, Steven A. Channing, and Charles P. Roland.
His comprehensive methods were inclusive and exhaustive in scope and detail yet presented to his students in a logical and eloquent manner.
Upon receiving news that irreplaceable historical documents were being abused and defaced in Frankfort, Dr Clark rushed to the scene from Lexington.
Clark's subsequent appeals to the Legislature and the Governors led to the eventual establishment of the Kentucky Archives Commission in 1957.
He was outspoken in matters of timber and natural resource conservation, fiscal responsibility, constitutional and education reform, and especially human rights.
He was capable and articulate in framing current policy against the lessons of history and careful to skillfully represent only primary sources whenever possible – a praxis which earned him immense respect, not only in Kentucky and the US, but around the world.
His public visibility earned him a name for taking an appreciation of history to the people – not hiding in the halls of academia.
[3]Clark remained an active member of the American Historical Association and spoke on countless occasions in many venues both academic and non-academic.