George H Brimhall

Early life

Brimhall was born to George W. Brimhall and Rachel Ann Meyer in Salt Lake City. When Brimhall was about one year old his family moved to Ogden and then moved to Spanish Fork, which is where Brimhall attended "Timpanogos University". Because of his family's financial situation, one semester they gave the school a side of beef to pay for his tuition. After working closely with instructor George Carson at a Spanish Fork common school, he moved back to Spanish Fork, became a teacher, and received a county teachers certificate. In 1874, Brimhall married Alsina Elizabeth Wilkins. They were the parents of 6 children.

Before becoming President

While in Spanish Fork, Brimhall was involved with the civil affairs of the city. He became city marshal in 1875, but only for a short period of time and was later appointed as "auditor of accounts" for 2 terms. He also organized a literary and debate society and helped build a schoolhouse called "The Young Men's Academy". He eventually became principal of the Academy. After being involved in most of the educational events in Utah County, Brimhall became interested in Brigham Young Academy and decided to begin attending in 1876. In 1877, Brimhall graduated from Maeser school, but often struggled to get good scores on teacher examinations and other academic assessments. In 1883 Brimhall was elected as the district superintendent of Utah County schools and oversaw many other educational programs in Utah County and in Salt Lake City. He worked closely with Warren Newton Dusenberry, who was an instructor at Brigham Young Academy. Brimhall also worked with the Sunday School program of the LDS Church and taught classes for the young men's Mutual Improvement Association. He published some articles in the Contributor Magazine and was on the local board of examiners. He eventually moved from Spanish Fork to Provo in order to take his place as head of the Provo community schools.

In 1890, Abraham O. Smoot invited Brimhall to be a part of the faculty at Brigham Young as a church calling. Through the Academy and with special instruction from Benjamin Cluff, Brimhall was finally able to complete a college degree while simultaneously heading the Intermediate Department and Preparatory School at the Academy. When Cluff became principal of the Academy, Brimhall took his place as head of the Normal Department, but continued in his position over the Training School as well. Then in 1894, Cluff returned to Michigan to complete his graduate work and left Joseph B. Keeler and Brimhall as co-acting principals of Brigham Young Academy. Both Brimhall and Keller had desires to follow Cluff's example and go east to study, but because Keller had been at the Academy longer than Brimhall, he was permitted to go east first. Because of this delay in Brimhall's education, he would never again have such an interest in pursuing higher education. This became one of the greatest weaknesses of his administration.

In 1897, Brimhall was called by John W. Taylor to serve a month-long mission in Colorado. While in Colorado, Brimhall became ill and this illness, plus others, would continue for the rest of his life. When he returned to the Academy after his mission, he continued to work closely with Cluff. They worked to persuade the state legislature to recognize the Brigham Young Academy Normal School. He also worked closely with church leaders in Salt Lake City and in 1898 he became an official member of the Church Board of Education.

Acting President of the Academy

When Cluff left on his expedition to South America, Brimhall was appointed as the temporary superintendent of Church schools and the acting president of Brigham Young Academy. As acting president, Brimhall encountered many obstacles, especially with the funding of the school and the proposed Church University which threatened the existence of the Academy. Eventually, Brimhall was able to successfully secure enough money to construct a building for the Academy's Training School and from the generous donations of the Jesse Knight family and colleagues, a new Central Building for the Academy was built. Brimhall was on the high council of the Utah Stake during this time.

Because the Academy was being closely watched by the Board of Education and resources were scarce, Brimhall took it upon himself to ensure the success of his students. He began a class to help local parents with childcare, gave emphasis to the importance of student assemblies and clubs, and sent students and faculty to local LDS churches to speak about the value of education and speak well of the Academy. He also gave much of his attention to finding excellent speakers for the Academy's summer school and often found himself in the classrooms of the Academy lecturing and helping individual students with their educational pursuits. Because of this workload, many of Brimhall's past illnesses began to manifest themselves again. Luckily, a couple months after the illness took hold of Brimhall, Cluff returned from South America and was able to take on the responsibilities that Brimhall had been shouldering at the Academy. In April 1902, Brimhall went to California to recuperate. The year after Cluff returned to the Academy, its name was officially changed from Brigham Young Academy to Brigham Young University (BYU).

President of Brigham Young University

In December 1903, the Board met to appoint a new president for BYU. George H. Brimhall and Joseph B. Keeler, who had served as co-presidents together during Cluff's absence, were the two main candidates. The votes were evenly divided between the two until Stephen L. Chipman decided to vote in favor of Brimhall, breaking the tie. On 16 April 1904, Brimhall was unanimously elected as president of Brigham Young University. To follow the pattern of LDS church leadership, the Church Board of Education requested that Brigham Young University, Latter-day Saints University, and Brigham Young College appoint a presidency for their respective institutions. Brimhall appointed Joseph B. Keeler and Edwin S. Hinckley as members of the BYU presidency. Just as in past years, the first couple years of Brimhall's presidency were met with financial problems. The church allocated more funds for BYU than any other church school that was supported by their funding, but it still was not enough money to cover the University's expenses.

Brimhall continued to support the athletics programs at the University just has his predecessor, Cluff had done. During Brimhall's presidency, the Training School Building gymnasium was constructed and because football had been banned by the Board, the school focused on basketball, baseball, and track. Brimhall was known for his influential speeches that were able to evoke both positive and negative emotions from the students and faculty. He was also known for his outgoing and talkative nature, which helped him secure friends who could come to his aid for emotional and financial hardships.

In 1907, Brigham Young University officially applied to be the official Church university and Brimhall pushed for grants in order to fund the construction of BYU's first university facility. The application to build the facility (now known as the Maeser Building) was approved by the Board of Education and BYU was the official Church university for a short time, but because of heated discussions among other Utah educators the Board decided to keep all of the Church schools at the same status for the time being. However, Brigham Young University was recognized as the LDS Church Teacher's College, which accelerated its increase in prestige among other know universities. During Brimhall's time as president of the University he helped organize the collegiate program into separate departments in order to increase concentration of certain subject. Class credits were better defined and a more defined separation of high school and college was put into place.

That same year, Brimhall permitted Brigham Young University students to paint the letters "B", "Y", and "U" on the mountain nearest to campus, but because of limited time and resources, the "Y" was the only letter put on the mountain. The mountain that the students painted is now called "Y Mountain" In 1908 students built a concrete retaining wall around the Y.

The Maeser building was completed in 1911, but leading up to its completion, Brimhall took it upon himself to invest more in the school just as many students and faculty members had done monetarily for the new university building. In order to achieve the goals that he had set for the University, Brimhall recruited educators who had degrees from prestigious universities in the East. These educators helped facilitate the organization of the departments and curriculum of the collegiate program. Many controversial topics relating to modernism were introduced to the school through faculty, which caused quite a stir at the University. After a group of students approached Brimhall and let them know that they were questioning their belief in God because of their exposure to false doctrine, Brimhall and Horace H. Cummings (who was superintendent of Church schools), decided to approach the Church Board with the hopes of setting a precedent for what could be taught at the University. After a hearing in front of the Board, Ralph Vary Chamberlin, Joseph Peterson, and Henry Peterson, who advocated evolution, biblical criticism and historical criticism were to be dispensed from their teaching positions unless they would change their teachings. This caused many in the press and members of other church institutions to question the church's authority to regulate professor's freedom of speech in the classroom.

Because of the recent controversies between the school and the Board of Education, Brimhall was surprised when the school was given $50,000 for BYU high school and $90,000 (initially $25,000) for the University, although the school still remained in debt. Brigham Young University would continue to face financial problems throughout Brimhall's presidency and around 1914 unofficial reports stated that BYU would be closed and moved to Salt Lake City to become part of LDS University. Near the end of Brimhall's time as president, the University began to emphasize its role as a religious institution, specifically focusing on the importance of testimony and morality. When the United States declared war with Germany in 1917, Brimhall conducted many patriotic assemblies and supported his students who enlisted. In October 1918, under the direction of President Brimhall, Brigham Young University officially opened an Army Training Corps center. The school continued its growth by building the Mechanic Arts Building, which would be the first step to the construction of separate buildings for each of the colleges within the University.

Executive committee

At a BYU Board meeting, Brimhall announced that the church had asked him to devote some of his time to the seminary program. In order to keep the University running without Brimhall's constant supervision, a faculty executive committee would help with important school affairs.This shift in power marked a new era for the BYU. With regards to the University, Brimhall was focused on the liberal arts program and would often travel with other faculty members to promote the program. Although Brimhall was not as interested in hiring professors from eastern universities, he did keep in touch with Mormon students who went to graduate schools and their reports helped Brimhall see the value of advanced degrees. Brimhall also received reports from eastern administrators praising the values and intellectual prowess of students who received their undergraduate education from BYU.

Post-Presidency

Suffering from chest and abdominal pain, Brimhall resigned the presidency of BYU in July 1921, although he remained head of the Department of Theology and Religion. Brimhall committed suicide on July 29, 1932, although many newspapers simply reported that he died after a long battle with illness.