Albert Ray Olpin (June 1, 1898 – March 7, 1983) was president of the

University of Utah The University of Utah (U of U, UofU, or simply The U) is a public research university in Salt Lake City, Utah. It is the flagship institution of the Utah System of Higher Education. The university was established in 1850 as the University of De ...

from 1946 to 1964. During his presidency the university quadrupled in size and enrollment tripled from 4,000 to 12,000 students. To accommodate these new pupils, new programmes such as Nursing and Fine Arts were organised.

Biography

Olpin was the eldest son of eight children and was raised in Pleasant Grove, Utah. He was accepted into the

Brigham Young University Brigham Young University (BYU, sometimes referred to colloquially as The Y) is a private research university in Provo, Utah. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day ...

business school at 16 years of age, but left school a year later to serve a four-year mission in

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

for

the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a Nontrinitarianism, nontrinitarian Christianity, Christian church that considers itself to be the Restorationism, restoration of the ...

. When Olpin returned he switched majors and graduated from Brigham Young University with bachelor's degrees in

mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

and

physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which r ...

in 1923. In 1930 he received a

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is a ...

in physics from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

. He then worked at

Bell Laboratories Nokia Bell Labs, originally named Bell Telephone Laboratories (1925–1984), then AT&T Bell Laboratories (1984–1996) and Bell Labs Innovations (1996–2007), is an American industrial research and scientific development company owned by mult ...

where he conducted research that led to the first television broadcast. He directed research departments at Kendall Mills in

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...

and at

Ohio State University The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best publ ...

. On October 16, 1946, he became the seventh president of the University of Utah, continuing as such until his retirement in 1964, at which time he accepted the title of "President Emeritus" and continued working with the university as a consultant. He also worked on the

Manhattan project The Manhattan Project was a research and development undertaking during World War II that produced the first nuclear weapons. It was led by the United States with the support of the United Kingdom and Canada. From 1942 to 1946, the project w ...

that developed the first atomic bomb, and then helped in efforts to rebuild Japan after World War II. Olpin died in Salt Lake City on March 7, 1983.

University growth

Many of the buildings on campus today were built under President Olpin's administration. Olpin started a 10-year building program in which 30 buildings were completed, including the Milton Bennion Hall, the Merrill Engineering Building, and the A. Ray Olpin Union Building. Olpin worked to resolve challenges less frequently faced by larger, more established institutions, including defending academic freedom and educating local politicians about the potential for the University of Utah to become the state's flagship university.Peterson, Anne Palmer. ''Years of Promise: The University of Utah's A. Ray Olpin Era, 1946-1964''. University of Utah Press: Salt Lake City, 2009.

References

1898 births 1983 deaths Brigham Young University alumni Columbia Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni American Latter Day Saints Scientists at Bell Labs American Mormon missionaries in Japan Presidents of the University of Utah 20th-century Mormon missionaries Fellows of the American Physical Society {{LDS-stub