Lowell L. Bennion and the Founding of the First Institute of Religion (University of Utah, 1934)

Lowell Lindsay Bennion (1908-1996) has been called the most important Latter-day Saint educator, ethicist, and humanitarian of the twentieth century. After graduating from the University of Utah in 1928, he served a mission in the Swiss-German Mission, then earned a Ph.D. in sociology in 1933. Returning to Utah in 1934, he founded the Institute of Religion adjacent to the University of Utah—the first Institute in the Church—and directed it from 1934 to 1962, encouraging thousands of Latter-day Saint students to live the gospel in the midst of secular learning. He took as his motto that the institute should be the best thing on the campus. He also founded the first food bank and homeless shelters in Utah, and later the Lowell Bennion Community Service Center at the University of Utah. His consecrated life is a faith-promoting witness that the Lord, in a time of intellectual ferment, raises up teachers who make the house of learning also a house of faith, and who turn learning outward to feed the hungry and shelter the homeless.