By Kelley Bozeman

Thomas Clark

Clark's awards have been numerous and varied. In 1969, he received an honorary doctorate from the University. The Kentucky State Legislature named him Commonwealth Historian Laureate for life and designated him “a state treasure” in 1990.

Clark's birthday speech

July 11 , 2002– (Lexington, Ky.) – Over 200 people were in attendance at Maxwell Place as the University of Kentucky College of Arts and Sciences and the UK Department of History celebrated noted historian Thomas Clark’s 99th birthday.

Clark, who received his master’s degree in history from UK in 1929, served as a professor and department chair in the UK Department of History. He has written numerous books, including The Emerging South; Pills, Petticoats, and Plows: The Southern County Store; The Greening of the South; The Southern Country Editor; Kentucky: Land of Contrast; and A History of Kentucky, which the Lexington Herald-Leader called “a watershed text that served the state for more than a half century.”

Clark’s awards have been numerous and varied. In 1969, he received an honorary doctorate from the University. The Kentucky State Legislature named him Commonwealth Historian Laureate for life and designated him “a state treasure” in 1990. That same year, he was awarded the first UK Library Medallion for Intellectual Achievement. The University Press of Kentucky has named both its Limestone Street building and its foundation for Clark.