Biography of Franklin
Stewart Harris
By Eunice Polly
Stewart Harris
Franklin
Stewart Harris was born in Benjamin, Utah County, August 29, 1884. He was a delicate baby and in his early
childhood did not have much pep. He
always said he was too tired when asked to join the other children in their
games. He was passionately fond of pets
and enjoyed playing with a doll. Unless
his mother insisted on his going out, he would sit all day holding some pet or
looking at a picture book. He was gentle
and affectionate and desirous of pleasing.
When he was
five years of age, on November 6, 1889, he moved with the family to Old Mexico,
where his father had gone a few months before to make a home for them. When he was six years old he started to
school in the primary department of the school that afterward developed into
the Juaren Stake Academy; but as he was still rather delicate he could not go
regularly until he was eight. As he grew
in years he grew in strength until in his later boyhood he was a giant of strength,
physically and intellectually.
His fist
appearance before the public was when he was six, when he stood up in Sunday
School to say a recitation, as was the custom for children to do at that
time. He finished the recitation, then
ran to his father and buried his face in his father’s arms and sobbed until
Sunday School was over. That broke the
ice. He was never so timid again, but
was willing to help when asked.
Three days
after he was eight years of age, on September 1, 1892, he was baptized into the
L.D.S. Church and he was very happy.
One of his
chief characteristics in his boyhood, his young manhood, and which has remained
with him all along through life, and I suppose the one upon which his success
has depended, was his desire to study his problems out without help. He wanted to study away where no one would
make a suggestion. He was always a
student. He learned to read by studying
out the letters on signs and advertisements.
He was orderly and industrious and had a fine understanding of the value
of time even in his youth.
He grew and
developed as most boys do in rural communities, by working, playing, and going
to school and changing from one to the other as circumstances required. They had to create their own amusements. He was always ready and willing to do his
part in all social activities and in the activities of the family he was at the
front, whether it might be riding the range, doing chores, working on the farm,
in the cannery, in the store etc. His
younger brothers thought he was quite a hero.
He was willing to come down from the porch of big brother and be one
with them in their play, then he could correct them and show them their
mistakes and they took it good-naturedly.
He was not only one with his brothers, but he was always democratic,
even in his youth, and was a good friend to all. His charity might well have served as an
object lesson to grown-ups. In
considering his ethical characteristics, we must not forget that he lived in an
ideal environment and all of his companions measured up to his high standards.
When he
was ___ years old he joined the bank
and learned to play the cornet.
He received
the different degrees of the Priesthood in their order.
During the
school year of 1896 and 1897 the family was temporarily living in Dublan, and
Frank attended school there where he finished the eighth grade or public
school.
At the
beginning of the school year in 1897 Guy C. Wilson, a teacher, came from Utah
and took the principalship of the Academy and Frank began his work as a
freshman. During the year 1899 and 1900
Frank worked in the store and did not attend school. In May, 1903, when he was nineteen years old
he graduated from the J. S. A. The first
class to graduate from a four-year course.
The class all through their high school had as their inspiration the
symbolical emblem or motto, “Rowing, not drifting”, and they were truly
rowers. The varied nature of his work
through his life fitted him to cope with the many problems he had to work out
in his life.
Charity,
industry, sympathy, generosity, honesty, helpfulness, cheerfulness, and
democracy were his outstanding characteristics during his boyhood and his young
manhood, and they have remained with him during his later life. In addition to these he was a good
mixer. These won for him many valuable
friends among leading men as well as those in the humbler walks of life.
He and his
older brother, Denny, had a great desire for higher education, or at least to
have a taste of college life.
Although
the financial condition in that foreign land seemed almost to forbid it, we
began planning and struggling to get the necessary money to send them away to
college.
August 20,
1903, they bade their home and friends goodbye and started to Utah to the Brigham
Young University at Provo. We were
filled with anxiety and were undecided as to whether we were doing the right
thing in sending those two boys who were so young and so inexperienced as to
the ways of the world, where they would meet evils and temptations which they
had never faced. They were registered at
the B.Y.U. as students, Frank entering on a scientific course and Denny
entering the business college where he was chosen president of his class. At the end of the school year they worked in
Utah until August, when they returned to Mexico, Frank to teach in the J. S. A.
and Denny to take over the management of the store in Juarez.
The spring
of 1904 their father bought a large farm near Cardston, Alberta, Canada, and
their mother and the other children joined him there later. Annis and her young children remained in
Mexico until the next year when she moved to Provo so the boys still had a home
in Juarez.
At the
close of the J. S. A. in the early summer of 1905 Frank went to Canada and
worked on the farm. The last of August
he returned to Provo and again entered the B.Y.U. as a student, and at the end
of the school year returning to the farm and then back to school. The summer of 1906 he worked in the B.Y.U.
laboratory.
He
graduated from the institution in 1907, when he was 23 years of age, with the
degree of Bachelor of Science. That
summer he returned to Canada and worked on the farm.
After his
graduation he signed a contract to teach at the U.A.C., so he went to Logan at
the opening of school. He lived in the
home of Dr. Widtsoe, the president of the college, where he was treated like
one of the family. At the Christmas
vacation he announced his engagement to Estelle Spillsbery to the family. The following June 18 they were married in
the Salt Lake Temple. During the summer
after their marriage they spent seven weeks on the farm in Canada.
In his
young manhood he set as his goal of achievement the obtaining of the degree of
Dr. of Philosophy. In this desire he
received every encouragement from his parents and from Dr. Widtsoe and many of
his friends. His parents thought if he
succeeded it would have a good psychological effect on his younger brothers in
setting their aim high. He planned,
worked and economized for the accomplishment of that purpose. Owing to his father having so large a family,
he knew encouragement was about the only help the family could give him.
If the
desire is great enough and the courage and determination strong enough in any
undertaking, the battle is half won.
In August
he and his young wife, with their hearts full of faith, hope, and
determination, went to Ithica, New York, where Frank entered the Cornell
University as a student. Estelle stood
bravely by him to sustain him and give him encouragement, ever willing to
sacrifice and economize. It took great
hope to launch out on an undertaking like that without financial backing. Here he worked and studied for three years, when
he obtained the degree of Dr. of Philosophy.
May 25,
1909, Arlene, their first child, a daughter, was born. During these three years he did research work
to help pay expenses.
In June the
struggle was over. He has reached the
precious and untiringly sought-for goal-- his degree of Dr. of Philosophy, and
example of what can be accomplished if the desire be strong enough. In July, 1911, Frank returned to Logan and
the U. A. C. where he took the position of agronomist for the Institution.
During the
years he worked at the U. A. C. he was active in church work. In 1911 he was called to be a member of the
Y. M. M. I. A. Stake board.
Owing to
his democratic, sympathetic, and friendly nature, he made the entrance into
college life easier to many bashful, frontier-raised students.
Chauncy
Dennison, their third child was born January 31, 1914. This same year he was called to the
superintendency of the Sunday School in the Fifth Ward.
In 1914 he
wrote his first book, “The Young Man and his Vocation,” and later in connection
with George Stewart he wrote on Agronomy, which has been adopted as a text book
for schools.
September
14, 1918, Leah Dorothy, a daughter was born and March 8, 1921, Mildred, their
fourth daughter and sixth was born.
While
growing to manhood and dreaming his dreams and building castles of the things he
wanted to do in life, in a small frontier town in Old Mexico, the thought that
the time would come when he would be honored by being invited to be president
of a university could scarcely have had a place in them.
He had been
brought up on the maxim, “Preparation is the key that unlocks the gate to
opportunity,” until it became a part of his life and all of his life he had
been in preparation for the position that was now offered him. The call came making him to be president of
his Alma Mater-- the Brigham Young University.
He was prepared and he accepted.
By his industry, his studious habits, and his perseverance in overcoming
obstacles all of his life, he had been preparing for the great work that was
now opened up to him.
In August,
1921, they moved to Provo. After the
opening of school came the impressive inauguration ceremonies with all their
honors. It could not have helped being
proud for him, his family, and his near relatives. Through his charity, his sympathy, and his
democratic principles, he was peculiarly fitted for this position.
In 1926 he
wrote, “Science and Human Welfare,” and in 1927, “The Fruits of
Mormonism.” He is an active member of
the general board of the Y. M. M. I. A. of the Church.
In
September, 1927, a World’s Congress of Scientists was held in Japan and he was
honored by being asked to read a paper before the sessions. August 20 he sailed for Japan. They stopped over at the Hawaiian Islands for
a while were he was the guest of Antoine Ivins, who did everything possible to
show him the most important things in the allotted time.
While in
Japan all the members of the congress were the guests of Japanese Government
and they were entertained royally. They
were shown everything of interest in Japan.
As Frank
was half way around the world he decided to continue traveling west and return
home via Europe, thus making a circuit of the globe. He visited China, India, passed through the
Suez Canal, Egypt, where he climbed the great pyramid, Palestine, with its
scenes connected with the Savias.
When he
reached France he was met by his wife and they toured Europe together,
returning home August 20, 1928, just one year from the day he started on the
trip. A wonderful opportunity to have
come to them.
In 1929 the
Jews of America sponsored and financed a commission of scientists with the
object of investigating conditions as to the feasibility of colonizing the Jews
of Russia in Russian Siberia. Frank was
invited to be a member of this expedition and had the distinction of being
chosen chairman of the commission. He
spent four months in Siberia, about three hundred miles from the Pacific Ocean,
in company with five other scientists, returning home November 3.
