Clark, Arthur Lewis (1873-1956)

Arthur Lewis Clark was the third Dean of Applied Science, and held the position for 24 years.

Born in Worcester, Massachusetts, he finished high school in only two and a half years. Even as a boy he was fascinated by physics and mathematics and he pursued his interests at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, where he obtained a BSc with a specialization in Electrical Engineering.

Dr. Clark took a job as a science and mathematics teacher at Bridgton Academy in Maine and saved up enough money to enter into graduate studies at Clark University a year later. He studied physics there for two years and then took a post teaching at the Worcester Academy. He also married Imogene Whitney during this period.

After four years teaching at Bates College, he obtained his PhD from Clark University and then returned to Bates for a year before he learned that a position was available as a physics professor at Queen's University, a position he entered in 1906.

Dr. Clark taught his classes in Ontario Hall, which had been built only four years before his arrival. He said that in his first year of teaching at Queen's his students numbered 123 - three of them women. Dr. Clark was appointed chairman of the university's Science Research Committee in 1916 and carried out many of his own experiments in the areas of thermodynamics and the properties of liquids and vapours.

Dr. Clark was appointed Dean of Applied Science in 1919 and held that position until his retirement in 1943. Altogether, he spent 41 years at Queen's.

He won the Montreal Medal in 1947 (now known as the John B. Stirling Montreal Medal), but he said that the greatest honour he ever received was when the students chose to name Clark Hall after him.

He authored a book about the history of the faculty, entitled The First Fifty Years: A History of the Science Faculty at Queen's University 1893-1943 (see Books about Queen's).