Benjamin Cluff

Benjamin Cluff, Jr. (February 7, 1858 – June 16, 1948) was the first President of Brigham Young University, and the school's 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

Cluff lived in Coalville, Utah prior to his starting studies at Brigham Young Academy in 1877, where he studied in the Normal Department. After one year he became a teacher at Brigham Young Academy. He then went on a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to Hawaii in 1879. In 1882 he returned to teaching at Brigham Young Academy, teaching everything from language to bookkeeping. 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.