J. Elliot Cameron

J. Elliot Cameron was an educator and administrator. He served as president of Snow College in Ephraim, Utah, from 1956 to 1958, Dean of Student Services at Utah State University from 1958 to 1962, Dean of Students (later changed to Dean of Student Life) at Brigham Young University from 1962 to 1980, and president of BYU-Hawaii from 1980 to 1986. In 1986 he became Commissioner of Church Education for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints where he served until 1989 when the position was abolished for a few years.

Cameron was born on February 9, 1923, in Panguitch, Utah. He attended Southern Utah State College and completed his bachelor’s, master’s, and doctorate degrees at Brigham Young University. He taught at Lincoln High School (now Orem High School) for one year, then served as principal of Duchesne High School for one year. From 1950 to 1953 he was principal of South Sevier High School and was superintendent of Sevier School District from 1953 to 1956.

In 1964 he participated on a Church committee that evaluated the need for the Church to build more junior colleges. The committee’s recommendation (called the Cameron Report) was that the Church establish primary and secondary schools for Church members in areas where such schools were not available.

After Cameron retired in 1989, he served as president of the Provo Utah Temple until 1992. He also served as a bishop, stake president, regional representative, and member of the Sunday School general board. He was a temple sealer at both the Provo Utah Temple and the Laie Hawaii Temple.

He was a contributing editor to the Encyclopedia of Mormonism[1] and frequently contributed to the Latter-day Saint Church magazines.

He also served in the US Army during World War II where he reached the rank of Master Sergeant and became a specialist in hospital administration.

Cameron and his wife, Maxine, were the parents of four children and a foster son. He died on February 27, 2011, in Provo, Utah.