George Thomas

George Thomas was a Utah university professor and administrator. He was president of the University of Utah for twenty years.

Thomas was born on December 29, 1866, in Hyde Park, Utah, to George and Mary Ann Griffiths Thomas.

He held a PhD from the University of Halle, Germany. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Harvard in 1896, his master’s in 1901. He also studied at the University of Paris.

Thomas was a professor at Utah State Agricultural College from 1898 to 1900 and from 1905 to 1917. He also served with the Utah State Educational administration. He was president of the University of Utah from 1921 to 1941.

During his twenty-year leadership at the University of Utah, the university acquired more than $2 million worth of buildings: the library, the Union building, Kingsbury Hall, Engineering hall, the field house and stadium, the ROTC buildings, and a much-needed women’s dormitory.

Thomas married Anna Matilda Eliason in 1908. He died on April 11, 1951, in Salt Lake City.