Benjamin Cluff

Benjamin Cluff Jr. (February 7, 1858 – June 14, 1948) was the first president of Brigham Young University and its third principal. Under his administration, the student body 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. Early life Benjamin Cluff was a native of Provo and was born to Benjamin Sr. and Mary Ellen Foster Cluff in 1858. When he was 4 years old, his family moved to Logan, Utah. They then moved to Hawaii when Cluff was 7 years old because his father was serving a mission there. The family worked at a church owned plantation for cotton and sugar cane. They returned to Utah in 1870. Cluff later lived in Coalville, Utah with his uncle where he became the city librarian at age 17 because of his love of reading. In 1877, he walked 67 miles from Coalsville to Provo in order to start his studies at Brigham Young Academy, where he studied in the Normal Department. When he first started school he worked as a janitor, but after one year he became an instructor in the Primary Department at Brigham Young Academy. He then went on a 3-year mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to the Hawaiian Islands in 1879. In 1882 he returned to teach at the academy, teaching everything from language to bookkeeping. He also helped the fire brigade in Provo when the Lewis Building, which was the original location of Brigham Young Academy, caught on fire. 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. While studying in Michigan, Cluff joined a prestigious student organization called the Adelphi Society. He worked closely with professors in the fields of astronomy and engineering, and became good friends with James Burrill Angell, president of the university. Cluff received his bachelor's degree from the University of Michigan in 1890. He also served as president of the Ann Arbor Branch of the LDS church while there.