Harvey L. Taylor

Born August 28, 1894, in Harrisville, Weber County, Utah, Harvey was the first of two children born to Harvey Daniel Taylor and Letty Saunders. His parents were twenty-three and nineteen, respectively, at the time of Taylor's birth. Taylor never knew his biological father, who died suddenly of typhoid fever when Taylor was ten months old. Seven months after his father's death, Taylor's sister was born. During those first few years, Letty earned twenty-five cents a day to clean laundry for a neighbor. The family was mainly reared and supported by Taylor's grandmother. In 1899, Taylor's mother married Samuel S. Ferrin and the family moved into the small Ferrin farm home in Pleasant View, Weber County. Taylor had few possessions when they were first married, and had to borrow 160 dollars just to furnish their apartment. == College and teaching ==

Harvey and Lucelle briefly moved to Provo, Utah, where he wanted to attend Brigham Young University (BYU). Most of the men on campus were gone because of the first World War, and according to Harvey, the campus itself was only offering credit through examinations while their classrooms were closed. After Wilkinson's loss in the Senate race, President McKay invited him back to BYU to fill both positions, but the executive committee determined that Taylor should continue his duties over all church educational institutions, with the title of "administrator" instead of "chancellor", probably to reflect that the position was not one within the university. Hugh B. Brown informed Taylor of his appointment, but with no specific instructions on what he should do. His appointment was an interim one. According to Gary Bergera, the designation of "interim" was to "pacify McKay's concerns that a permanent appointment would be unfair to Wilkinson". Taylor's new position oversaw all the LDS Church's seminaries and institutes, schools in South America, schools in the Pacific Islands, Tonga and Samoa and Western and American Samoa, schools in New Zealand, the Papeete, Tahiti, and Hawaii. In this position, Taylor traveled an average of 100,000 miles a year. The program had 300,000 students, 5,000 teachers, and 4,000 staff members. The budget was forty-five thousand dollars annually. After six years, Neal A. Maxwell replaced Taylor in this position in 1970, and BYU was added to his jurisdiction. Maxwell's position was renamed Church Commissioner of Education. Taylor worked with Maxwell for his first year of employment to ease the transition. At Maxwell's request, Taylor completed his own history of LDS Church education. Three copies of his informal history were made: one for Neal A. Maxwell, one for the LDS Church Archives, and one for himself, which he would later donate to BYU. With the completion of this project, Taylor retired after fifty-two years in education. == Personal life ==

Around 1930–31, while Taylor taught at Gila College, two of his children (Darrell and Betty) contracted typhoid fever. Darrell in particular was very sick and had to be hospitalized in Miami, Arizona with a doctor who specialized in typhoid fever. Darrell was unconscious for thirty-two days. The doctor called Taylor to tell him that Darrell wouldn't survive much longer, and that Harvey should come right away. Taylor arrived to find Darrell conscious for the first time in over a month. Taylor credits the prayers of the church councilmen back in Arizona to have provided the miracle. ==References==