S. George Ellsworth, a noted Utah historian, author and teacher, died Monday, Dec. 22, 1997, at age 80.
Mr. Ellsworth, who died of kidney failure, was a retired Utah State University history professor.Born in 1917 in Safford, Ariz., Mr. Ellsworth graduated from what was then Utah State Agricultural College (now USU) in 1941. He taught school in Bunkerville, Nev., and was an Army chaplain during World War II.
He then pursued graduate studies at the University of California, Berkeley, and completed his doctorate in history in 1951.
Mr. Ellsworth joined the USU faculty that year and began a career that would put him at the forefront of Utah historians. He retired in 1983 after teaching Utah, U.S., ancient and Greek history to scores of students. He served as chairman of the history department for three years in the 1970s and was named the university's top teacher several times.
A founding co-editor of the "Western Historical Quarterly," in 1970, Mr. Ellsworth was the managing editor until retiring from that job in 1979. That's the publication of the Western History Association, which gave him an honorary life membership in 1984.
Mr. Ellsworth wrote eight books, including the standard seventh-grade textbook "Utah Heritage," which took him 15 years to research and write. It was first published in 1972 and updated three years ago.
Mr. Ellsworth recently donated his lifetime of research to the Special Collections Department at USU. Mr. Ellsworth had served as a bishop in a Logan ward of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
He is survived by his wife, Maria Ellsworth, an author who often worked with her husband on writing projects; and two sons, Mark and Steven. Funeral arrangements are pending.