An introduction to Carroll D. Wright, former Clark president and the first U.S. labor commissioner
For many students, their initial experience at Clark occurs within the walls of Wright Hall. They may not know (or care) where the building got its name, but in fact, it comes with an illustrious history.
The residence hall is named for New Hampshire native Carroll D. Wright, the first president (1902–1909) of Clark’s undergraduate college. Wright was a pioneer in the study of labor statistics during the Gilded Age, when labor conditions, immigration, and increasing disparity between rich and poor were key concerns of Americans.
Wright was inducted into the U.S. Department of Labor’s Hall of Honor in 2015.
While at Clark, Wright also served as professor of statistics and social economics and co-taught a seminar on socialism and communism. Wright believed strongly that participation in intercollegiate sports distracted students from their academic work, and Clark’s ban on intercollegiate football dates from this time, despite the fact that Worcester Magazine had in 1902 anticipated match-ups between WPI, Holy Cross, and Clark.
Notable Facts about Clark President Carroll Wright:
- In 1861 enlisted as a private in the Union army, rose to the rank of colonel, and served as adjutant to General Philip Henry Sheridan during the Shenandoah Valley Campaign
- Director (1873-88) of the Massachusetts Bureau of Statistics of Labor, the first of its kind in the U.S.
- Appointed by President Chester A. Arthur as the first commissioner of the Federal Bureau of Labor (1885-1905)
- Appointed by President Grover Cleveland to chair the commission to investigate the Pullman Strike of 1894
- President of the American Statistical Association (1897-1909)
- President of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1903
- Recipient of the Cross of the French Legion of Honor, 1907, in recognition of his efforts to improve industrial conditions throughout the world.
This story originally ran in the fall 2010 issue of Clark magazine.
