OAH Honors Centenarian Thomas D. Clark and Unveils Centennial Logo

At its 2004 meeting in Boston, the OAH conferred its inaugural OAH Centennial Award on Thomas D. Clark for his singular contribution to the organization. Professor Clark, shown above, at left, with OAH President James O. Horton, began attending OAH meetings in the 1920s and he later joined the organization in 1937. Clark helped transform the organization from the Mississippi Valley Historical Association (MVHA) into the OAH during the 1960s. Professor Clark has served on program committees (1938-1941 and 1942-1944), the Executive Board (1941-1944, 1955-1963), and as president (1956-1957) and executive secretary (1970-1973). In this latter role, he helped move the OAH executive office in 1970 to its current home at Indiana University and launched the OAH Newsletter in 1973. Professor Clark played a particularly significant role in the organization in the 1950s and 1960s, a time when the MVHA doubled in size, became more nationally focused, and broadened its responsibilities as a scholarly association. As the MVHA grew to encompass all areas of the American past, Professor Clark pressed for the name change of the Mississippi Valley Historical Review to the Journal of American History. He also chaired the MVHA’s Future of the Association Committee (1963-1964), which, among other important steps, renamed the association the Organization of American Historians, and urged that it find a “semi-permanent headquarters” linked to a university.

OAH established a Centennial Committee this past year to help prepare for the organization’s 100th anniversary in 2007. Committee chair and former OAH Executive Secretary Richard S. Kirkendall joined his predecessor, Professor Clark (who turned 100 last July), in unveiling the new centennial logo (above) in Boston.