William Smith Clark

William Smith Clark

By Ayaka Kasahara

“Boys, be ambitious” is one of my favorite quotes. Even if some people don’t know whose words they are, I believe many Japanese have heard them. I have been encouraged by the words since I was a high school student. That is why I chose William S. Clark for this project.

Clark was born at Massachusetts, US in 1826. After getting doctor’s degree of chemistry, he started teaching it as well as botany and zoology. Even though his academic career was once interrupted due to the Civil War, he became the president of Massachusetts Agricultural College (presently the University of Massachusetts Amherst) after he quit army in 1863. In 1876, Clark was invited by Japanese government to work as the president of Sapporo Agricultural College in Hokkaido prefecture (present Hokkaido University). Around that time, the government was planning to cultivate Hokkaido prefecture with establishment of educational institutes. ‘Boys, be ambitious’ were Clark's words for his students before he left Hokkaido. A lot of students saw off the orator at that time. Reportedly, he continued to contact his students by letters even after he came back to the US. He died in 1866 at the age of 59.

It was quite surprising for me that his words continue and there are various versions; ‘boys, be ambitious like this old man’, ‘boys, be ambitious for Christ’, etc. The reason is thought to be that it was 60 years later that the first graduates of SAC told the words for the first time when his book about his student life with Clark was published. That made Clark’s words unclear. Furthermore, some people interpreted and arranged them.

The question I had for my group was, what did he want to tell with “Boys be ambitious”? As the words vary based on individual’s interpretation, we can have different ideas on them. In the beginning of the discussion, I asked the members if they knew the following words of the quote, and it turned out no one did. Then I gave them questions: how he felt when he said the words, what words they would add to the quote, and how they interpreted it. They said Clark wanted his students to be brave and gentle, and they would add that type of words. On reflection, I prepared too many questions and I failed to give the members enough information to participate in the discussion.


He was a great professor for the students and highly admired. Even though he didn't stay in Hokkaido for long time, he had a good time with his students. There is no telling what he said to the students exactly. Even if the words didn't have such an important message, he was endowed much trust by his students. That made him very popular around Japan. Now that he is more famous in Japan than in the US. I hope the number of respectable educators like him increases and students admire more teachers, so that both students and teachers can spend fulfilling school life.