The Pioneer: Thomas Arkle Clark, Dean of Deans

Abstract

“A tall, spare, white-haired man with a bushy white mustache was carried into a Chicago hospital last November to undergo a serious operation. Flowers, letters, telegrams began a rriving for him. ‘Who is this guy?’ asked an attendant. Replied another, ‘Guess he’s a gangster.’” This was the beginning to the 1931 Time magazine obituary for Thomas Arkle Clark, officially the dean of men at the University of Illinois from 1909, and by most accounts one of the first dean of men in the United States. The obituary described Clark as

Well-beloved, well-hated, “Tommy Arkle” wore garish clothes, big rings, liked to be told that he was the best dressed man on the campus, glowered quizzically over his spectacles as he talked with his students. Quietly, firmly he made his impress upon Illinois, abolishing naughty fraternities (Kappa Beta Phi, Theta Nu Epsilon), fraternity “hell week,” freshman hazing, student ownership of automobiles. He is fond of proper fraternity life, interested especially in his own Alpha Tau Omega.¹