Joseph F. Merrill - Early Life

Early Life

The son of LDS Church apostle Marriner W. Merrill, Joseph Merrill was among the first Latter-day Saints to leave Utah and travel to the eastern United States to seek higher education. He studied at the University of Deseret, the University of Michigan, and finally Johns Hopkins University, becoming the first native Utahn to receive a PhD. While at the University of Michigan Merrill was the president of the Ann Arbor Branch of the LDS Church.

Upon his return from the east he became the director of the School of Mines at the University of Utah. In 1895 he became the first principal of the University of Utah College of Engineering. The Merrill Engineering building on the University of Utah campus is named in his honor. In 1911 he was called to serve in the presidency of the Granite Utah Stake of the LDS Church.