Special Event

The fifth UAC president, John A. Widtsoe, replaced President William J. Kerr.

President John A. Widtsoe (1907–1916)

John Andreas Widtsoe was born on January 31, 1872, in Norway. In 1883, he immigrated to the United States with his mother and brother and arrived in Utah Territory in mid-November of that year. He was baptized a member of the LDS church the following April. Widtsoe attended Brigham Young College and Harvard University. He received AM and PhD degrees from the University of Gottingen in Germany in 1899.

In August 1900, Widtsoe became the director of the Agricultural Experiment Station at the Utah Agricultural College until 1905, when he became a professor of agriculture at Brigham Young University. He is arguably called the founding father of BYU’s college of biology and agriculture. However, he returned to UAC in 1907 as the president of the college. After Widtsoe’s presidency at UAC, he became the president of the University of Utah from 1916 until his call as a member of the LDS church’s Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in 1921. During his time as an apostle, he taught a religion class at the University of Southern California. He passed away on November 29, 1952, in Salt Lake City.