Leonard J. Arrington - Academic Career

Academic Career

Arrington taught at North Carolina State College from 1941 until 1942. He was a professor at Utah State Agricultural College in Logan, Utah (which became Utah State University in 1957) from 1946-1972. For a year leave during 1956-1957, he was a fellow at the Henry E. Huntington Library and Art Gallery in San Marino, California. From 1958-1959, he was a Fulbright Professor of American Economics at the University of Genoa in Italy, and from 1966-1967 he was a visiting professor of history at the University of California, Los Angeles. From 1972-1987 he was Lemuel H. Redd Jr. Professor of Western American History at Brigham Young University.

In 1977, he received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from the University of Idaho (his alma mater), and in 1982 Utah State University awarded him an Honorary Doctor of Humanities degree.

In 2005, in honor of Dr. Arrington, Utah State University created the Leonard J. Arrington Chair in Mormon History and Culture, which was sponsored by more than 45 donors. This chair is the first position at a public institution specifically for the study of the Mormon history and culture. In Fall 2007, this chair was first filled by Philip Barlow. The university also hosts the Leonard J. Arrington Mormon History Lecture Series, in which Arrington himself gave the inaugural lecture in 1996.