The late G. Homer Durham, a respected professor and university president, was a man noted for a series of "firsts" in educational achievement. Now the University of Utah is working to establish a G. Homer Durham Endowed Scholarship Fund in the department of political science in Durham's honor, to provide financial help to deserving graduate students in political science.
Durham was born in Parowan in 1911, the first of the eight children of George Henry and Mary Ellen Durham. When he was 2 1/2, his family moved to Boston, where his father studied at the New England Conservatory of Music. His father was gone a lot, and his mother apologized for keeping Homer up so late at night. "He was the only one I had to talk to," she said.
Homer learned from his mother how to read and play the piano by the time he was 4. He did not enter public schools until the family moved back to Parowan when he was 7. On the first day of school, he was in the first grade, but by the end of the day he had advanced to third grade.
As a young boy, he sold ice cream bars at the state basketball tournaments and maintained a paper route while in Parowan, then he majored in political science and history at the University of Utah and worked his way through college as a "trimmer of cabbages" in the vegetable department at ZCMI.
When he was older, Homer played Hoagy Carmichael tunes on the piano every Saturday night with the "Rhythm Red Devils" dance band at Tom Davis' Old Balsam Hotel. He postponed his service as an LDS missionary until he had earned enough money to finance the entire two years in England. Ironically, it was during his mission that he met the girl of his dreams, the youngest daughter of a member of the LDS Quorum of Twelve Apostles, Elder John A. Widtsoe.
While president of the European Mission of the LDS Church, Elder Widtsoe regularly invited missionaries serving in London to come to dinner at his home. In July 1933, Homer wrote in his journal, "Today, I met her!" meaning Eudora Widtsoe, the charismatic young woman who would become his wife.
For both, it was love at first sight — but they were careful to obey all mission rules. In fact, during the dinners at the Widtsoes, Homer talked to Eudora only through another missionary, "Would you please ask Miss Eudora. . . . " The Widtsoes returned to Utah during Homer's last year as a missionary, so he corresponded with Eudora during that year. When he called on her at home after his release, she wrapped her arms around his neck, gave him a real kiss — their first — and said, "My, you waited a long time!"
Before long, Homer proposed, literally on bended knee. Following their wedding in 1936, they drove a Model A Ford to UCLA where Homer studied for his Ph.D. in political science, the first granted by the university. In fact, his Ph.D., awarded in 1939, was only the second awarded in any field by UCLA.
While Homer was still a student, the Durhams had two children, Carolyn and Doralee. Then they moved to Logan, where he taught political science at Utah State University. The Durhams spent the 1942-43 academic year at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania, then they returned to Logan, where their third child, George, was born.
Soon afterward, they moved back to Salt Lake City, where Homer joined the faculty at the University of Utah. There, he established the Institute of Government, became the first chair of the political science department, founded the Western Political Science Quarterly Journal, helped found the Western Political Science Association and exercised a profound impact on numerous students.
Durham wrote or edited several books in his academic field of political science and several about LDS history and doctrine. His last major published work, a biography of President Nathan Eldon Tanner, was completed in 1981.
Students often said Durham was "an exciting teacher with almost total recall." In fact, some thought he was intolerant of those who didn't think as fast as he did. They called him "G. Homer" and were struck by his direct eye contact and his hair parted down the middle. His demeanor was formal, and he was not given to small talk. Once, at the end of a public administration class, he was given a standing ovation, which brought tears to his eyes.
Some students remembered Durham, saying that eventually he would like to be a U.S. senator. Yet, he was gentle in manner, disciplined and subdued. His son, George, a prominent pediatrician, said, "Father believed in the importance of getting an overview of a given subject by paying attention to introductions, prefaces and outlines of textbooks. I am told that he would often give a surprise exam the second or third meeting of a course, in which he would inquire about the titles, authors and main purposes of the texts already announced for the course."
George also remembers "fascinating conversations" whenever his parents entertained other political science professors, such as Francis Wormuth, S. Grover Rich, Helmut Callis, Ellsworth Weaver, Franz Shick and J.D. Williams.
One of Durham's most illustrious students, John Ryan, went on to serve as executive vice president under Durham at Arizona State University (where Durham went after his tenure at the U.). Later, Ryan became president of Indiana University in Bloomington. Ryan said Durham's "ebullience excited me about political science as a subject, about teaching as a career and about the man himself." Ryan said Durham was dedicated to the improvement of the political science department at the University of Utah, and during his tenure as chairman, both the curriculum and the quality of the faculty improved immeasurably.
Ryan praised Durham for bringing in such brilliant faculty members as Francis Wormuth, even though Durham and Wormuth had totally opposite views on politics and the world. "However, Durham always respected and supported the presence and the work of Wormuth in the department, thus making it a better department."
Durham also was very interested in his students, and so he invited political science majors to weekly evening lectures, during which nationally distinguished teachers of anthropology, geography, economics, geology, history, philosophy and biology would speak in an effort to balance the political scientists' intellect. Durham frequently invited the students to his home for an evening of entertainment, which always included substantial conversation about current events or some major work of literature.
Although a few considered Durham's introspective manner to suggest he was distant or elitist, Ryan believes those feelings were unfounded. Rather, said Ryan, Durham was "the best example" he ever knew of a person dedicated to individual improvement, and "without any personal feeling of superiority or pomposity."
L. Ralph Mecham, another former student, has held several administrative posts at the U., as well as in government. He had great respect for Durham's "sense of fair play." While some students thought Durham "remote," Mecham believed Durham avoided being "too chummy" in order to protect the "proper professor-student relationship." On the other hand, Mecham was impressed by Durham's habit of "going to the wall" for his students to help them obtain professional employment. Mecham said, "He knocked himself out for his students."
Mecham remembers that being invited to Durham's home was not initially easy for spouses of students, who were unsettled by the absence of small talk and the emphasis on discussing major national and political issues. In fact, Durham preferred asking questions using the Socratic method.
Other well-known devoted students of Durham's included Neal Maxwell, former vice president of the University of Utah and now an LDS Apostle; Martin Hickman; Dalmas Nelson; Garth Jones; and Claude Bertenshaw, all prominent political science professors in their own right. Maxwell has said that Durham knew how to combine toughness and fairness to bring out the best in people. "He was forthright but respectful of the views of others. He was cooperative without being manipulative. Not many manage to strike such a balance."
In 1953, Durham became the U.'s first academic vice president, where he served with administrative distinction, affixing his signature to 87,000 diplomas. In 1960, he was chosen to become president of Arizona State University. There, he was known as a builder of 50 new structures on campus, as well as the authorization of the Ph.D. in several fields, a chapter of Phi Beta Kappa, the establishment of colleges of law and fine arts and a graduate school of social work.
When he returned to Utah in 1969, he became Utah's first commissioner of higher education and served until 1976, when he became a research professor at the U. Finally, in 1977, he spent the final eight years of his life as a member of the First Quorum of the Seventy of the LDS Church, part of that time as the quorum's president; his supervisory responsibilities included the Historical Department.
Durham, whose personal, academic and theological legacy was immense, passed away in January 1985.
Those interested in making a tax-deductible contribution to the G. Homer Durham Endowed Scholarship Fund in the Department of Political Science at the University of Utah, may contact Dalmus H. Nelson, Professor Emeritus, Political Science, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84112, or call him at 582-5407. The goal is to create an endowed fund in Durham's honor to provide financial help to deserving graduate students in political science.