Harvey L. Taylor

Harvey L. Taylor was a Church Educational System administrator from 1964 to 1970, under the title Administrator of the Unified Church School System. From 1957 to 1964 he served as vice president of Brigham Young University. He had served Executive Assistant to Ernest L. Wilkinson. He retired in 1971.

Taylor was born on August 28, 1894, in Harrisville, Utah. His father died suddenly when Taylor was ten months old. His sister was born seven months after their father’s death. Their mother remarried in 1899, and he spent the next school years either living with his grandmother in Harrisville, living with a member of his step-father’s family, or living with his family in Pleasant View, Utah.

There was no local high school, so he attended LDS Weber Academy (which is currently Weber State University). Later he graduated from the University of Utah with degrees in English and psychology. Taylor then taught at Weber Academy for four years.

He obtained his master’s degree from Columbia University. He then taught at Weber College (formerly Weber Academy), where he met Ernest L. Wilkinson and J. Willard Marriott. He was asked to be president of Gila Junior College (now called Eastern Arizona College) in Thatcher, Arizona, where he stayed for six years. “When the Great Depression hit the United States, the LDS Church stated that it could no longer afford any of its junior colleges. The Gila school board appointed Spencer W. Kimball and Taylor to visit the towns in Graham County and raise interest in Gila College. The two traveled with a little college band, showed posters, and gave speeches. After the events, the community voted in a five-to-three ratio to publicly fund Gila College.”[1]

He then accepted a position as superintendent of Mesa Union High School. In 1956, Arizona State College at Tempe gave him an honorary juris doctorate degree.

He and his wife, Lucelle, were the parents of one son and three daughters. He died on November 15, 1983.