Franklin Stewart Harris

1884 – 1960

Details of activities and achievement of this illustrious educator, administrator, and ambassador of goodwill need no repetition. But mention of them assures him a place among the stalwarts of the Mormon colonies in Mexico. His heritage, his natural adaptabilities as well as his basic potentialities assure him this claim.

Franklin S. Harris was born into a family of educators. His father and mother, Dennison Emer and Eunice Stewart Harris were both students of Karl G. Maeser. They met and marr ied while attending Brigham Young Academy. Both did competent work in the schoolroom before and after marriage, first in the Nebo District in Utah and later in the pre-Juarez Stake Academy days in Colonia Juarez.

Frank, their second son, was born in Benjamin, Utah, August 27, 1884 and was but five years of age when his parents joined their educational efforts with the struggling settlers of Colonia Juarez. They were a vital part of the community life until Frank was nineteen years of age. His growing-up days afforded experiences that laid a firm foundation for his future greatness. Being a grandson of sturdy pioneers on both sides of the family, he was richly endowed with resourcefulness, endurance, an abiding faith in God, and a consuming desire to qualify for whatever life had to offer. Many of his future positions of trust stemmed from lessons learned in these early years.

Frail and delicate in health during his childhood years, he would sit much of his time, looking at pictures in a book and holding a pet. His love for good books and his later ability to author several important textbooks had their beginnings in these early years. What he read from them made a profound impression on his life. No matter where his travels took him in later life, he never bypassed a library building nor failed to browse through its aisles to leaf through its. most appealing volumes. “I like the feel of a good book in my hand,” was his usual comment at the end of these visits.

From this came his wide reading habits, his ability to assimilate information, to classify and use it to make him an authority on many vital questions. The value of good books and voluminous reference material geared his promotion of adequate library facilities in every university he headed, and filled them with books containing information in all fields.

As a boy Franklin S. Harris was taught the Spanish language in school, and was provided with infinite opportunities to use it in free conversation with natives of Mexico, working, playing and later doing business with them. This made it easy to love those of another race, to respect their customs and way of life. From this he found that mastering one foreign language was an open sesame to the fundamentals of another and being able to understand a foreign people. Growing up on a foreign frontier, he worked for what he had, or went without. From his first job, clerking in his father’s store, he learned to hand Ie money, to be strict in accounting for what passed through his hands. Later as an administrator of large universities, where he had to handle great sums of money, these fundamentals helped. Riding the range and rounding up cattle to preserve and build up a good herd gave him genuine respect for a good mount. He never outgrew his love for a faithful horse, nor lost his enjoyment of the feeling of a sturdy, dependable animal under him.

His interest in food preservation originated in Mexico also. Until a cannery, in which he worked, was instituted, the only means of enjoyment of fruits and vegetables the year-round was through drying apples, peaches, grapes, green corn and squash. The only means of keeping pork, beef and butter for year-round consumption was in preserving it in brine or dry salt.

Through his continued interest in this subject, he became chairman of the United National Food and Agricultural Association of Greece in 1946 where his findings were of international benefit.

In his evening strolls from home on star lit nights, study of the stars and other heavenly bodies became a favorite pastime. He often said, “No place in the world stars seem so close and friendly” as he found them on these strolls. He came to know many of the common constellations. At an early age he could talk understandingly of heavenly bodies and impart his awe and amazement of the perfect order in the universe. On one of his trips through the deserts in Iran, his group had been following the tracks of a truck, for there was no road. When the truck tracks disappeared, everyone had a different idea about which way they should go. Frank quietly said,

“We will sit and wait until it is dark. Then I can tell you by the stars the direction we should take.”

Frank was an independent thinker and worked out his own problems, never asking for help until he had done all he could for himself. He also learned the value of time, and was always willing to do his share of work. These stable qualities contributed immensely to his future success.

With the coming of Guy C. Wilson to Colonia Juarez in 1897, Frank’s school life took on more purpose. He was just ready to enter his freshman year. This was a privilege made possible after only ten years of settlement.

Ordinarily high school privileges were not possible in so short a time, and Frank was not slow in realizing this opportunity as an outlet to his ambitions. He was primed to be fed educationally by this dynamic Utah-trained educator and to digest his teachings. Under Professor Wilson’s stimulating direction, learning-hungry Frank went fast. Quoting his brother, we read:

Education was not the only manifestation of quality among these resourceful pioneers. Though poor in material things they were rich in aspirations of the cultural and spiritual attainments. Mediocrity and the shoddy were looked upon with disfavor, while excellence and high quality were sought. As early as the 1890s many cultural achievements were manifest. A band under the direction of German-trained John J. Walser was organized in which Frank played the cornet. Local dramatics and musical presentations were of a high order. A well-trained Ward choir directed by Walser enriched the weekly Sacrament meetings in which Frank sang a tenor part. Intense interest in these cultural activities were developed in Frank.

His reward was the cultural uplift such things gave to his life. Frank also was influenced by the missionary system that, in spite of poor conditions, sent several missionaries a year to all parts of the world. In this atmosphere, Frank passed through four years of high school and graduated in May 1903. His appetite for learning had been whetted so that nothing but a college degree could be considered. Three months after his graduation from high school, he enrolled in the Brigham Young University to begin a brilliant career. He was primed and readied for a dedicated life by taking seriously what his mother had often repeated: “Preparation is the key that opens the door of opportunity.”

Franklin S. Harris returned to Colonia Juarez after one year at the Brigham Young University to be a fellow teacher with Guy C. Wilson, and proved by the efficient way he opened scientific doors to students so inclined, that the torch Professor Wilson had lit for him was being passed on to others still burning. His father moved his family from Colonia Juarez that year, 1904, to a farm near Cardston, Canada. So the community in which he had grown up saw him no more as a resident. During college years he met and married Estella Spilsbury, daughter of Moroni and Rosalie Haight Spilsbury of Toquerville, Utah. The marriage began a long, happy fruitful life together and was solemnized in the Salt Lake Temple June 8, 1908. Together they reared six children, all of whom do honor to his name, one of them being the well-known columnist for the Improvement Era, where for twenty-five years approximately he shared his scientific findings under the title, “Exploring the Universe.” All are graduates, even Estella, of the Brigham Young University.

Franklin S. Harris received his Bachelor Degree from the Brigham Young University in 1907 and his Ph.D. in soil sciences, chemistry and plant physiology from Cornell University at Ithaca, New York in 1911. Less than ten years later he was appointed President of the Brigham Young University. He was then thirty-six years old. Because of his doctorate, his training under Dr. Widtsoe, his teaching at the Agricultural College in Logan and his magnetic personality, he was rated the best man in the State of Utah for the position. His twenty-four years of service proved this to be no exaggeration. His fame as an agronomist was worldwide, and his textbooks are yet in demand.

In one year Franklin S. Harris increased the enrollment from 425 to 800, and in twenty-four years to more than 3000. There was only one college within the university, education, when he began. “Not everyone who enters the BYU wants to be a teacher,” he reasoned. “There must be other departments added for training in other fields.” Five more colleges were added in less than four years: the College of Arts and Sciences; the College of Applied Science; the College of Commerce; and finally, the College of Fine Arts.

Later a Graduate School and Extension Division were added. His annual budget was less than 5 percent of what other universities were receiving. Yet with his ability to stretch dollars and make every penny do maximum service, and by insisting that every department stay within its budget, he saved enough to buy property on “Temple Hill” for an expanded BYU campus, and began the fabulous building program that still is in progress.

The Maeser Memorial was the only building on the upper campus. To it were added seven more buildings: The Heber J. Grant Library in 1925; the Stadium in 1929; the Brimhall Building in 1935; the Stadium House in 1936; the dormitories, Allen Hall for men and Amanda Knight Hall for women in 1938; and the Joseph Smith Memorial building. The J. Reuben Clark Library replaced the Heber J. Grant Library in 1963. The George A. Smith Field House was added to the Stadium about the same time. And vision of what has since been accomplished building-wise was in mind.

As his school expanded, his popularity with teachers and students grew. He was friendly and helpful and his office door stood open always for free entrance of students or teachers with problems to discuss. This easy accessibility to his office made Franklin S. Harris personally acquainted with many students and teachers. He could call more of them by their first name than any other administrator on campus. He curtailed the fraternity system extensively, viewing it as a detriment to academic attainment, and as insufficiently democratic. He controlled his students by giving them just one rule to follow, which was: “Make every thought and act of your life while attending the Brigham Young University square with the teachings of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.” He set the example and required faculty members to do the same.

While Franklin S. Harris was changing the Brigham Young University from a small unknown college into a renowned institution of learning, he was filling other assignments of a world-wide nature. In 1929 he was chairman of an American Commission to travel to the Soviet Union to observe the living conditions of the Jewish people. After traveling through parts of Europe and European Russia his commission went to Eastern Siberia to explore the agricultural possibilities of land which was thought to be a suitable place for Jewish colonization. Franklin S. Harris reported his findings to Jewish leaders in Europe and his descriptions of various colonization projects were welcomed by influential American Jews. In 1939 Franklin S. Harris served a year as agricultural advisor to the Shah of Persia. Sometime later he returned to set up a workable four-point program. He later returned to Persia (now Iran) again in 1952, after he left the Brigham Young University and was President of the Utah Agricultural College in Logan, Utah. Even after his retirement in 1950, he undertook similar missions. He raised the standards of production, improved methods, and made lasting friends from His Majesty the Shah to the lowliest workman. His reputation as an agricultural advisor never suffered a decline.

His appointment to become President of the Utah State Agricultural College caused deep regret in the separation from his beloved BYU, but he entered his new duties in the fall of 1945. Franklin S. Harris held this position until the spring of 1950, and remained President Emeritus of this institution until he died. Death marked the passing of a remarkable educator, a lover of mankind and a world-wide benefactor. He died April 18, 1960 and was laid to rest in the Salt Lake City cemetery. He was mourned and revered by his family and legions of friends. His funeral service was held in the Assembly Hall on Temple Square, Salt Lake City and his memorial services were held in the George Albert Smith Field House on the campus of his beloved Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, May 23, 1960.

In 1962, a lasting memorial for Franklin S. Harris was planned and in 1965 BYU’s largest academic building, the Franklin S. Harris Fine Arts Center was dedicated. It is a structure that dramatically perpetuates his love of the Fine Arts, his appreciation of the culture that produced it and his dedication to the promotion of a keener appreciation of the beauty of art.

The building, while perpetuating the memory of a revered founder, is truly an art center, a sight-lifter for all who enter and a cultural uplift to the campus. It is also a reminder of one who enriched life and added beauty to that of others.

Nelle Spilsbury Hatch

Stalwarts South of the Border, by Nelle Spilsbury Hatch

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