The first range ecologist, he was the father of range management. Arthur William Sampson’s list of “firsts” is impressive: first person in America to be called a range ecologist, first to promote deferred and rotational grazing strategies, first to develop usable concepts of indicator species and plant succession for evaluating range condition, first to write a college text on range …
Mattie Clark Sanford
This distinguished teacher and photographer had a zest for living. At age 10 Mattie Clark wanted to leave school to become a photographer. Instead she remained in school much of her life as both a student, receiving a master’s degree in zoology at age 59, and as a teacher for 45 years, retiring in 1944. Born October 30, 1878, in …
Wallace Stegner
(1909 – 1993) Best-selling author, major historical novelist, biographer and a Pulitzer Prize winner, who received most of his formal education in Utah.
Obert C. Tanner
Dionne Williams Utah History Encyclopedia, 1994 A major philanthropic figure in Utah, Obert C. Tanner was born 20 September 1904 in Farmington, Utah, the youngest of ten children born to Annie Clark Tanner, the second plural wife of Joseph M. Tanner. He attended schools in Farmington. As a youngster he thinned sugar beets, herded sheep, and did farm work. He …
Virginia Tanner
She was America’s outstanding children’s dance teacher. As a child growing up in Salt Lake City, Virginia Tanner loved music and movement, but the formal structure of ballet inhibited her. With her father’s encouragement she danced freestyle—wearing black bloomers made by her mother—on the lawn outside the family home. The freedom to explore a child’s love of movement and fantasy …
Kuniko Muramatsu Terasawa
For 52 years she handset type for a unique Utah newspaper. When Kuniko Muramatsu Terasawa died in Salt Lake City on August 2, 1991, the career of a distinguished newspaperwoman and one of the most active senior citizens in Utah came to a close. Her death at age 95 also marked the end of the Issei (first-generation Japanese American) era …
Leora Thatcher
This noted Broadway actress also starred on radio and TV. Leora Thatcher was born May 12, 1894, in Logan, Utah, to Sarah Catherine Hopkins and Moses Thatcher, Jr. She attended Brigham Young College, Utah State Agricultural College (USAC), and the University of Utah where she studied theatre and speech under Maud May Babcock, graduating in 1921. She belonged to the …
Maria Leonella Salazar y Trujillo
She opened her home and her heart to dozens of foster children. Maria Leonella Salazar y Trujillo was born February 7, 1902, in Cebolla, New Mexico, to Katarino and Anna Maria Riberio Trujillo. On September 14, 1926, she married Jose Tobias Salazar. They eventually made Salt Lake City their home. After raising her own family, Salazar devoted her life to …
George Von Elm
He was the Utah golfer who defeated the great Bobby Jones. George (Gix) Von Elm was one of Utah’s greatest amateur golfers and in the early 1960s was named Utah Golfer of the Century. Gix was born in Salt Lake City on March 20, 1901, to Jacob H. and Marie Demmer Von Elm. He attended West High where he was …
Ruey Hazlet Wiesley
“First in war, first in peace…” describes this woman’s efforts. Born on June 25, 1886, to William N. and Mary Hazlet in Leon, Iowa, Ruey attended Iowa State Teachers College and taught school in Leon before her marriage on June 22, 1910, to Otto A. Wiesley. In 1921 the Wiesleys moved to Richmond, Utah. Ruey served as matron, librarian, and …