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Clark Honors College
University of Oregon Special Collections
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President, Speech Professor, Writer
This web site provides, through the papers of Robert D. Clark and
associated documents, a window into several important periods in the
history of the University of Oregon, from 1943 to the present. These
papers also include the years when Robert D. Clark was president of San
Jose State University (then College). In particular, it provides access
to a number of documents related to the history of civil rights and
student protest in the years from 1964 to 1975.
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Robert Donald Clark was president of the University of Oregon from
1969 to 1975.
It was a
challenging era: student protests dominated the news, and the
university was called upon by students and public alike to define
itself in relationship to the great issues of the times. The University
of Oregon could become the victim of conflict, succumbing to pressure
and to budget crises. Or it could rise to the occasion and increase in
it intellectual and cultural stature. Clark Kerr thought that the
University of Oregon had done better than the University of California
in making these years into a chance for growth.
There are many other items of interest in the Clark papers as well, in
particular related to his interests in speech, rhetoric, debate, and
history. He received a B.A. in English and History from Pasadena
College in 1931, an M.A. in Speech from the University of Southern
California in 1935, and a Ph.D. in Speech from USC in 1946: his
dissertation topic was a biographical approach to the oratory and
influence of Bishop Matthew Simpson. During the 1930s and 1940s, he
coached debate and symposium teams in California and Oregon, was editor
of Western Speech, and president of the Western Speech Association.
Papers from that era provide a detailed history of developments in the
field of speech and rhetoric. He then became Dean of the College of
Liberal Arts and Dean of Faculties at the University of Oregon during
the years from 1952 to 1964. He interested himself in the establishment
of an Honors College at the University, and in the development of the
sciences. In 1964 he left to become the president of San Jose State
College. During those years, 1964-1969, San Jose State was the center
of racial protest about the treatment of black athletes, addressed
issues of student unrest, and a faculty strike. Clark was a popular
president at both San Jose and the University of Oregon, known for his
dedication to the rights of students and to curricular innovation.
After retirement, Robert Clark turned once again to writing and
scholarship. He published The Biography of Thomas Condon, a history of
the Congregational minister, collector of fossils, and the renowned
professor of geology at the University of Oregon in its early days. A
number of articles on other important figures in the history of the
university also appeared. The archives include not only reflections
about his childhood (Clark was born in Frontier County, Nebraska, in
1910), but papers associated with his own book about the homesteading
of Nebraska, Rain Follows the Plow.
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