Franklin S. Harris
Franklin S. Harris | |
---|---|
Louis Linden Madsen | |
President of Brigham Young University | |
In office July 1921 – June 1945[1] | |
Preceded by | George H. Brimhall |
Succeeded by | Howard S. McDonald |
Personal details | |
Born | Salt Lake City, Utah , U.S. | August 29, 1884
Franklin Stewart Harris (August 29, 1884 – April 18, 1960) was president of
Early life
Harris was born in
After Cornell, Harris traveled back to Logan to become a professor of agronomy and an agronomist at Utah State Agricultural College (USAC).[5] In 1920, Harris was working as director of the Utah State Agricultural Experiment Station and was also head of the department of zoology and Entomology at USAC.[6]: 14 Although he held these administrative positions at USAC and was already the president of the American Society of Agronomy, Harris accepted the General Church Board of Education's offer of the BYU presidency on April 22, 1921.[6]: 19, 27 He was the first non-polygamous president of Brigham Young University.[1]
As president of a university
Brigham Young University
Before officially becoming president of BYU, Harris began to encourage college's development. He submitted a plan of organization that suggested adding the
Harris instituted special lectures on campus from
Harris oversaw the founding of the College of Fine Arts and viewed the enjoyment of the arts as vital to living a rich life.[8] The first building constructed on BYU campus during Harris's administration was the Heber J. Grant building. Its first purpose was as the university's library.[6]: 64 The building was dedicated in 1925. Harris wanted Brigham Young University to become a center of religious scholarship and advocated acquiring a broad spectrum of religious books in the library.[1] Just as the BYU presidents before him, Harris continued to differentiate and better organize the different collegiate subjects at the university and to separate the colleges, the normal school, and the training schools.[6]: 35
The university continued to struggle financially through Harris' presidency. This, coupled with the Great Depression in the 1930s, alienated Harris from the board of trustees. The Board of Trustees were slow to approve funds to the university. Instead of waiting, Harris would pay for campus expansions with the profits from the student bookstore without telling the board of trustees. Over time, Harris grew tired of debating with the board over financial programs he deemed important. He also struggled with J. Reuben Clark, Jr. who wanted a "purging of heretical faculty."[citation needed] Harris gave his resignation to the board in 1944 in order to become the president of Utah State Agricultural College.[1]
Utah State University
On November 20, 1944, Harris was offered the position of president at
Politics
In 1938 friends of Harris encouraged him to run for the Senate. He started campaigning when J. Reuben Clark Jr. told him the First Presidency wanted Harris to run for United States Senate. With fall approaching and school starting again Harris had little time to campaign, however, Harris won the primary election and became the Republican candidate for senator. Harris ran on an anti-New Deal platform. He eventually lost the election to Elbert D. Thomas.[7]: 159–167
Harris ran for governor of Utah in 1948. He won the third most votes at the Republican state convention but did not make it on to the primary ticket. By August he decided to give his support to
Other LDS church service
In June 1925 Harris was made a member of the General Board of the
International work
Russia
The Organization for Jewish Colonization in Russia (Yidishe Kolonizatsye Organizatsye in Rusland = ICOR) was established by pro-Soviet Americans in order to develop agricultural settlements in Soviet territory specifically for Jews. In 1928 one of the journalists involved with the ICOR, Leon Talmy, invited Franklin Harris to Russia in order to evaluate the area of Birobidzhan where the creation of a Jewish autonomous district had just been approved.[9] In 1929, Harris traveled to the Soviet Union as chairman of a commission appraising the territory.[10]: 36 In July 1929 the commission began searching in Birobidzhan to see if it could agriculturally sustain a large population. Harris spent two months "evaluating the territory for agricultural development."[9]: 335 The commission met with Alexei Rykov, chairman of the Council of Ministers as well as Jewish community leaders. Upon Harris' return to the United States, he traveled back to Utah by train in order to stop and speak in many cities about Birobidzhan and rally support for its progress. Harris wrote to Talmy for a time but eventually lost touch. He "regarded his trip to Birobidzhan as a highlight of his professional career."[9]: 335–336 The commission's work on the agricultural potential of Birobidzhan would later help in forming the Jewish Autonomous Oblast in 1934.[9]
Iran
In March 1939 Harris was asked by the United States Department of Agriculture to consider working with the Iranian government in order to reorganize Iran's Department of Agriculture. Harris and his wife left for Iran the next month.[7]: 173–175 Upon arrival, Harris became the agricultural adviser to the Shah, Reza Shah, and the Iran government in 1939. Harris' first project was to inspect the structure and performance of the agricultural college in Karaj. He also studied Iran's forestry problem while working to improve Iran's Department of Agriculture. After a year contract Harris returned to Provo to manage BYU as its president. His relationships in Iran attracted Iranian students to the United States and specifically to Utah to study.[10]: 38–47
On March 10, 1950, Harris was asked by the Office of Foreign Agricultural Relations of the United States Department of Agriculture if he would be head the United States international technical collaboration program part of
Harris also served as the president of the LDS Church branch headquartered in Tehran, as reported in the October 1951 general conference.[7]: 187, 196
Middle East
In 1945 Harris was asked to lead a three-man mission to the Middle East by the United States Department of State and Agriculture. The purpose of the mission was to help survey foreign agricultural situations and provide "American agricultural experience" to the Middle East.[7]: 199 The first stop was Egypt where the group focused on diplomatic activities. The mission traveled through Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Greece surveying agricultural conditions. Back in the United States Harris gave a speech to the Institute of World Affairs in December 1948 where he addressed his recommendations for Middle Eastern advancement. He believed educating the area's population on agricultural improvement would sustain agriculture in these countries as well as provide new developments to maintain and preserve water.[7]: 201–211
Later years, death, and legacy
At age 65, in 1949, Harris attempted to retire as president of USAC, however, the board asked him to stay one more year. By the end of the next year Harris had agreed to return to Iran in order to implement the Point Four program. He was 68 when he officially retired. Board of trustee members and BYU presidents sought Harris' advice in his later years. Harris had a mild stroke the day after Christmas 1954 and in January 1956 experienced another. This ended his public career after which he kept mostly to himself and family. He suffered another stroke in 1960 and died seven days later on April 18.[3][7]: 335–341
Legacy
In his third year as BYU president he was awarded the "Supreme Honor Man of the Student Body" by the student body president. As a gift, the graduating class of 1935 commissioned his portrait to be painted by
Publications
Some of the publications of Franklin S. Harris from the BYU library catalogue.[12]
- Effects of variations of moisture content on certain properties of soil and on the growth of wheat, 1914
- The Principles of Agronomy, 1915
- The Young Man and His Vocation, 1916
- The Sugar Beet in America, 1918
- Soil Alkali, 1920
- Scientific Research and Human Welfare, 1924
- Heroes of science, 1926
- A Book of Mormon bibliography, 1936
- A critical study of the apparatus used by Beniams in his study of the emission of positive ions from heated filaments coated with metallic salts, 1936
- College values in retrospect, 1953
- The farmers of Iran, 1954.
- Others kept records on metal plates too, 1957
He also wrote articles for scientific journals and contributed bulletins to the Agricultural Experiment Station.[6]: 27
References
- ^ OCLC 12963965.
- ^ a b Winters, Charlene (Fall 1998). "Franklin S. Harris". BYU Magazine. Retrieved 2009-12-10.
- ^ Deseret News Press, 1936) Vol 4, p. 240
- .
- ^ a b Daines III, J. Gordon (2006). "Charting the Future of Brigham Young University: Franklin S. Harris and the Changing Landscape of the Church's Educational Network, 1921-1926". BYU Studies. 45 (4): 69–98.
- ^ ISBN 9780842507080.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Jensen, Janet (2002). The Many Lives of Franklin S. Harris. Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University Print Services.
- ^ Rowley, Dennis (1985). "Setting Sail: Franklin S. Harris". Friends of the Brigham Young University Library Newsletter.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-300-08486-3.
- ^ a b Franklin Stewart Harris: Educator, Administrator, Father, Friend: Vignettes of His Life. Provo, Utah: Published to coincide with the dedication of the Franklin S. Harris Fine Arts Center, April 3, 1965. Brigham Young University. April 3, 1965.
- ^ Daines, Gordon. "Franklin S. Harris Fine Arts Center". lib.byu.edu. Retrieved 3 July 2017.
- ^ "Franklin S. Harris: Author". lib.byu.edu. Retrieved 3 July 2017.
External links
- Franklin S. Harris at Find a Grave
- Franklin S. Harris presidential papers, UA 1089 at L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Brigham Young University
- Franklin S. Harris correspondence, UA 96 at L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Brigham Young University
- Pamphlets and articles mentioning or by Franklin S. Harris, UA 1106 at L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Brigham Young University