Charles Kirk Clarke

Clarke, Charles Kirk

Charles Kirk Clarke, psychiatrist, educator (b at Elora, Canada W 16 Feb 1857; d at Toronto 20 Jan 1924). He received his MD from University of Toronto in 1879 but had already begun his career in PSYCHIATRY in 1874, serving as clinical assistant to Dr Joseph WORKMAN at the Provincial Lunatic Asylum in Toronto. He was assistant superintendent of the Hamilton asylum 1880-81, of the Rockwood asylum in Kingston 1881-85, and then superintendent at Rockwood, a position he retained until 1905. He was transferred to the Toronto asylum that year and resigned in 1911 to accept the superintendency of the Toronto General Hospital. At the same time he served as professor of psychiatry and dean of the Faculty of Medicine at U of T. In 1918 he founded (with Dr C.M. HINCKS) and became first medical director of the Canadian National Committee for Mental Hygiene, later the Canadian Mental Health Association. The Clarke Institute of Psychiatry in Toronto is named after him.