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Children of Walter Clark Establish Endowment

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Judge Walter Clark

By CHARLES W. DANIEL

“The trouble with Walter Clark,” said a bitter foe, “is that he hasn’t the virtue of a single damn vice.” Tomorrow, on the 100th birthday of the late Walter Clark, author, jurist, statesman and chief justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court, his surviving children will honor his memory by establishing a $25,000 endowment to supplement the salary of the head of the Industrial Engineering Department of North Carolina State College. Creators of the endowment are: Susan Washington Clark, now Mrs. J. E. Erwin, of Morgantown; David Clark, president of the Clark Publishing Company of Charlotte; William A. Graham Clark of Washington, D.C.; John W. Clark of Greensboro; Thorne Clark of Lincolnton; Eugenia Graham Clark, now Mrs. John Allan MacLean of Richmond, Va; and Mrs. Walter Clark Jr., widow of the late Walter Clark Jr., of Charlotte.

Terms of the endowment are that the money shall be used over a period of not less than 10 years to supplement the State-paid salary of $5,000 yearly to the college’s ranking industrial engineer. The Department of Industrial Engineering is being reactivated after a lapse of two years. The department head has not yet been chosen.

The Fighting Judge.

Before his death in 1924, Justice Clark became famed throughout the nation as “The Fighting Judge.” As the umpire appointed by President Woodrow Wilson to rule on a National War Labor Board case in 1918, “The Fighting Judge” swung the first legal fist in favor of an eight-hour workday for this country. Born in Halifax County, N.C., on August 19, 1846, Justice Clark was the son of David Clark, wealthy and progressive planter, and Anna M. (Thorne) Clark. He married Miss Susan W. Graham, only daughter of Governor William A. Graham, in January 1874. The Tar Heel jurist received a bachelor of arts degree from the University of North Carolina in 1864. He later received honorary degrees of master of arts and LL.D. from the University after completing the study of law at Columbia Law School in Washington, D.C.

In 1865, Governor Scales appointed him judge of the Superior Court, a position which he filled with conspicuous ability until 1889, when he was transferred to the Supreme Court bench. Elected Chief Justice in 1902, Judge Clark soon became a national figure, widely renowned for his deep wisdom and judicial learning. Among his many unrewarded contributions to the State’s legal and historical literature are: Annoted Code of Civil Procedure; Laws for Businessman; Appeal and Error; Overruled Cases; Incidents and Information; plus 85 annoted volumes of the North Carolina Supreme Court Reports.

A great student of Latin and Greek even while a member of Confederate forces during the War Between the States, Judge Clark translated from the French Constant’s three volumes “Memoirs of Napoleon.” Despite, or with the help of the “dead language” texts, he rose to the rank of lieutenant-colonel in the Sixth Battalion of Junior Reserves.

Author of Motto.

He suggested and drafted the bill which was passed by the General Assembly adopting “Esse Quam Videri”– “to be rather than to seem”– as the official State motto and placing it upon the Great Seal of North Carolina. A total abstainer from alcohol, tobacco and profanity, the jurist’s only diversion from public life was looking after his prosperous Ventosa Plantation in Halifax County, from which he came to Raleigh in 1873. From the first days of State College, which opened its doors on October 3, 1889, the Halifax native was among its most consistent supporters. All five of his sons attended the institution, then known as Agricultural and Mechanical College. Each was graduated with a degree in engineering.

The Chief Justice died at his home here on May 20, 1924, at the age of 78. Wrote Biographer Brooks: “Distinguished citizens from every section of the state were present (as his body lay in state at the State Capitol), and thousands of common people also had come for a last look at their friend. He had never mingled with them, but he had served them; he had never flattered them, but he told them the truth; he had never preached to them, but he had fought their battles and they idolized him.”