Robert K. Thomas (BYU)

Robert K. Thomas (1918–1998) was a professor of English at Brigham Young University (BYU) as well as the founder of BYU's honors program and later the academic vice president of BYU.

Thomas studied at Reed College in Oregon. It was here he saw the benefits of a small college with close interaction between students and faculty. Thomas went on to receive an M.A. from the University of Oregon and a Ph.D. in English from Columbia University. He joined the BYU faculty in 1951.

After joining the BYU faculty Thomas convinced Ernest L. Wilkinson and other administrators to form the honors program. When the honors program was formed in 1959 he was appointed its director. In 1963 Richard D. Poll was appointed the associate director to assist Thomas. In 1965 Richard L. Bushman became a second associate director. Thomas ended his term as head of BYU's honors program in 1967 when he became academic vice president. Thomas retired from BYU in 1983. Among students who Thomas had a significant influence on while at BYU were John W. Welch and Allen E. Bergin.

Along with Bruce B. Clark Thomas co-authored the five volume series, Out of the Best Books. He also wrote multiple articles that examined the literary qualities of the Book of Mormon.

Thomas was a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He served in various calling in the Church including as a bishop, stake president and president of the Australia Melbourne Mission.

The BYU Honors program offers a scholarship named for Thomas. A collection of Thomas' speeches, edited by Daryl R. Hague is scheduled to be published by BYU Studies in 2011. BYU also has a Robert K. Thomas professorship in the J. Reuben Clark Law School which was held by John W. Welch beginning in 1996.

Sources

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Monday, November 17, 2014. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.