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Show II THE STORY OF UTAH R. JOHN R. PARK was made president in 1869. He was a great educator, and is called the Father of the University. The Park Building was named in his honor. The first president of the University was born in Tiffany, Ohio, in 1833. He was educated in the schools of his native town; Heidelberg College, Ohio Wesleyan University and the University of New York City, where he was graduated as a Doctor of Medicine in 1857. Returning home, he practiced his profession and taught school. In 1861 he left for the far West with California as his destination. Arriving in Utah that same year Dr. Park was employed by Bishop Isaac Stewart of Draper to teach the village school. The little school at Draper became famous. It was graded, a library of splendid books was purchased, a good museum established, and the boys and girls had remarkable facilities for their early training. In 1868, Daniel H. Wells became chancellor of the University and he immediately began a reform in the curriculum and policy of the institution. George Q. Cannon, then editor of the Deseret News, was advocating through the columns of that paper the establishment of an institution of advanced standing. Dr. Park was employed at a salary of $ 1,600 per year, and on March 8, 1869, the University was opened with Dr. Park as its president. The first catalogue gave courses of study, and announced the establishment of a good library. Instruction in the University included classical, normal, commercial, and preparatory courses, and for the first time, a model school was opened in connection with the Normal Department, in which boys and girls "would be prepared to enter immediately the college classes, and thus preclude the necessity of the present preparatory course." Military training and physical culture were also to be prominent features of the school, and literary societies were to be organized. Dr. Park's Journal shows the general activities of the students of those days: how they celebrated the Fouth of July and took part in the exercises celebrating the completion of the Utah Central railroad. |