Ezra C. Dalby

Ezra Christiansen Dalby was president of Bannock Stake Academy/Fremont Stake Academy/Ricks Academy, which is now called Brigham Young University-Idaho.

He was born in 1869 in Ephraim, Utah, as Ezra Christiansen. He legally changed his last name in 1907 to help distinguish him from the many other Christiansen/Christensen families in area. He graduated from Sanpete Stake Academy (now Snow College) in 1889 and from the University of Utah in 1891.

He began his career in 1892 as principal in Manti, Utah. He married Rosella Anderson in 1894 and she encouraged him to serve a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, of which he was a member. He served in St. Louis, Missouri, from 1896 to 1898. Upon his return, he became principal in Redmond, Utah, for a year and then in Moroni, Utah, for another year. In 1901, he became the principal of the Fremont Stake Academy and served for thirteen years. The Academy served as a secondary school since public schools had not yet been established. The Bannock Stake, structured by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, had grown enough to be divided and the geographical area where the Academy sat was now the Fremont Stake (1898), changing the name of the academy from Bannock Stake Academy to Fremont Stake Academy.

Under Dalby's leadership, the student body almost doubled and Fremont Academy added two years of high school and became a teacher preparatory and commercial school. The name of the school also changed to Ricks Academy, named for Thomas E. Ricks who had served as president of the Bannock Stake when the Academy was established.

Dalby left in 1914 and moved his family to the Teton Valley where he became principal of Teton High School in Driggs, Idaho. He earned his doctor of laws degree in 1918 from La Salle Extension University in Chicago then practiced law in Driggs from 1918 to 1921. He also earned his master’s degree from the University of Utah in 1924. In 1929, Dalby moved his family to Salt Lake City where he taught school and was principal of several Salt Lake City schools. In 1931 he wrote Land and Leaders of Israel: Lessons of the Old Testament.

Dalby was also active in each of the communities he lived in. While in Rexburg, he served as acting mayor and city councilman. He was editor of the Current-Journal (later renamed the Rexburg Standard Journal). In Driggs, he was a city councilman and then mayor. He also served in many capacities in the LDS Church.

He died in 1934. He and his wife had raised a family of seven children.