William Bullock OlarJc. 247 



WILLIAM BULLOCK CLARK. 



Dr. William Bullock Clark, professor of p:eology in the 

 Johns Hopkins University and Slate Geologist of Maryland, died 

 suddenly of heart failure on July 21 at his summer home at 

 North Haven, Maine. He was born at Brattleboro, Vermont, on 

 December 15, 1860. Entering Amherst College in 1880 he 

 received his A.B. degree in 1884 and immediately went abroad, 

 spending the next three years in von Zittel's laboratory at Munich 

 w^here he received his doctorate in 1887. After spending several 

 months in London and Berlin he returned to America as instructor 

 in the newly founded Department of geology at the Johns Hopkins 

 University. With the death of George H. Williams in 1S94 

 Clark became a full professor and head of the department. He 

 was connected with the U. S. Geological Survey in various capaci- 

 ties from 1888 until his death. 



Although coming from an old New England stock — the Bul- 

 locks having settled in Salem in 1643 and the Clarks at Plymouth 

 in 1623 — Professor Clark was for thirty years a citizen of Balti- 

 more, and it is doubtful if there has been anyone who has per- 

 formed a greater service than he to the commonwealth of 

 Maryland. It needs but an enumeration of his many positions of 

 responsibility to appreciate this unique service. He organized a 

 State Weather Service in 1892 and was its director for 26 years. 

 He organized the State Geological Survey in 1896 and was its 

 director for 21 years. He organized the State Bureau of Forestry 

 in 1906 and was its executive officer for 11 years. In 1898 as 

 State Geologist he was instrumental in starting the good roads 

 movement in Maryland and successfully steered through the 

 shoals of possible political waste in the expenditure of about 

 12,000,000 in the making of state highways. In 1910 a State 

 Roads Commission was organized to take over the rapidly expand- 

 ing work of the Highway Division of the Geological Survey, and 

 for four years more he was a very active member of this commis- 

 sion. He represented the state in tlie resurvey of the Mason and 

 Dixon line, was a member of the State Conservation Commission, 

 was instrumental in forming the state exhibits at the l>uffalo, 

 Charleston, St. Louis, Jamestown and San Francisco expositions, 

 and in arranging the state mineral exhibit in the State House at 

 Annapolis. He took an official part in the White House confer- 

 ence on conservation in 1908. 



In civic affairs he served as a member of the emergency com- 

 mittee appointed by the mayor at the time of the great Baltimore 

 fire in 1904, and aided in the rehabilitation and improvement of 

 the burnt district. In 1905 he was appointed by the mayor a 

 member of the committee to devise a sewerage system for the city. 

 In 1909 a like appointment resulted in the plans for the develop- 

 ment of a civic center for Baltimore. For 16 years he was presi- 

 dent of the Henry Watson Children's Aid Society. He was also 



