Benjamin Cluff
| Benjamin Cluff | |
|---|---|
 | |
| President of Brigham Young University | |
| Term | 1892 – 1903 |
| Predecessor | Karl G. Maeser |
| Successor | George H. Brimhall |
| Born |
February 7, 1858 Provo, Utah |
| Died |
June 16, 1948 (aged 90) Los Angeles, California |
Benjamin Cluff, Jr. (February 7, 1858 – June 16, 1948) was the first President of Brigham Young University, and the school's third principal. Under his administration, the students and faculty more than doubled in size, and the school went from an academy to a university and was officially incorporated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Cluff changed class periods from half an hour to a full hour, adopted the official colors of the university, started summer school and the Alumni Association, encouraged the university's first student newspaper (White and Blue), provided the first student loans and developed an intercollegiate sports system.
Cluff lived in Coalville, Utah prior to his starting studies at Brigham Young Academy in 1877, where he studied in the Normal Department. After one year he became a teacher at BYA. He then went on a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to Hawaii in 1879. In 1882 he returned to teaching at BYA, teaching everything from language to bookkeeping. In 1886 he received approval for a leave of absence to go to the University of Michigan and was set apart to study there by John W. Taylor.
Cluff received a bachelors degree from the University of Michigan. He also served as president of the Ann Arbor Branch of the LDS church while there. At the time he left for the University of Michigan Cluff had two wives, Mary the daughter of David John and Harriet "Hattie Cullimore.
When Cluff returned to BYA in 1890 he began teaching classes such as educational psychology. He also was the moving force behind the class of 1891 organizing with officers and electing Richard R. Lyman as their class president.
In 1902, Cluff organized an expedition to explore Mexico in search of the city of Zarahemla mentioned in the Book of Mormon. Although he was stopped in Nogales by Heber J. Grant, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, and told to cease the venture, Cluff ignored this counsel and proceeded with the journey. The ensuing eighteen months saw Cluff incarcerated in a Mexican jail. He finally returned to his position in 1904, but was accused of various improprieties, including sexual immorality by his assistant Walter Wolfe. Cluff was forced to resign.[1] The charges of immorality stemmed from a post-Manifesto marriage between Cluff and twenty-five year old Florence Mary Reynolds conducted in Mexico. Cluff had obtained permission for the marriage from Joseph F. Smith.[2][3]
Today, the Cluff Building on BYU's Provo campus is named for him.
Notes
- ↑ Wilkinson, Ernest L. (10 October 1974), Highlights in the Ninety-Nine-Year History of BYU, Brigham Young University Press, retrieved 2009-11-15
- ↑ Quinn, D. Michael (Spring 1985). "LDS Church Authority and New Plural Marriages, 1890–1904". Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 18 (1): 87–88.
- ↑ Anderson, Elizabeth O., ed. (2013). Cowboy Apostle: The Diaries of Anthony W. Ivins, 1875–1932. Salt Lake City: Signature Books. p. 205n50 . ISBN 978-1-56085-226-1. OCLC 814372610.
References
- Cannon, Brian Q., "Shaping BYU: The Presidential Administration of Benjamin Cluff Jr", BYU Studies 48 (2): 4–40
| Academic offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Karl G. Maeser |
Principal ~ President of BYA 1892–1903 |
Succeeded by George H. Brimhall |