July 2, 1917                 Leonard James Arrington is born on a farm near Twin Falls, Idaho, the third child of Noah Wesley and Edna Grace Corn Arrington

 

1917-1935                   Lives with his family in Twin Falls, Idaho

 

September 1931           Purchases 100 hens and six roosters and began raising chickens for study and for sale

 

1931-1935                   Actively participates in the Future Farmers of America (FFA) association

 

October 1934              Leonard attends the national FFA convention in Kansas City as Idaho’s FFA president

 

Spring 1935                 Attends the national officers’ meeting of the FFA in Washington, D.C.

 

May 1935                    Graduates from high school

 

September 1935           Travels to Moscow, Idaho, to attend the University of Idaho

 

1935-1939                   Studies first agriculture and then agricultural economics at the University of Idaho

 

June 1939                    Graduates with high honors from University of Idaho

 

September 1939           Travels to Chapel Hill, North Carolina, to begin graduate work at the University of North Carolina in economics.  Also begins teaching his own classes at the university after receiving a Kenan Teaching Fellowship

 

December 1939           Attends his first professional conference, the annual convention of the American Economic Association in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and meets Richard T. Ely, founder of the Association

 

Winter-Spring 1941,     Becomes an economics instructor at North Carolina State College 1941-1942 in Raleigh, taking classes as well as teaching for the winter and spring quarters of 1941, the summer session, and the entire 1941-1942 school year

 

October 1941              Meets Grace Fort, a Wake Forest girl who worked in Raleigh, at a birthday party given by Ruth Partridge

 

 

January 4, 1942            Is appointed branch president of the newly created Raleigh branch of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Fall 1942                      Begins working with the Office of Price Administration in Raleigh, North Carolina, as a price analyst

 

March 1943                 Is drafted into the United States Army and goes to Fort Bragg, North Carolina, for training

 

April 24, 1943              Marries Grace in Raleigh

 

July 29, 1943               Sails to North Africa for his military assignment as part of a World War II Italian prisoner-of-war processing company

 

September 1944           Is relocated to Bagnoli, Italy, outside of Naples

 

November 1944           Assigned to serve as the American representative of the Istituto Centrale di Statistica (Institute of Statistics) to gather statistics for the rehabilitation of the Italian economy, published as Censuses and Surveys for the National Reconstruction (1945)

 

December 1945           Travels back to America

 

January 1946                Reunites with Grace and is discharged from the Army

 

Winter & Spring           Teaches economics at North Carolina State College and Meredith College

1946                            and proposes to his Ph.D. committee that he write his dissertation on the economics of Mormonism

 

July 1946                     To aid his research for his dissertation, Leonard accepts a teaching position with Utah State Agricultural College in economics, and moves with Grace to Logan, Utah

 

December 17, 1948     Leonard and Grace’s first child, James Wesley, is born

 

1949-1950                   Returns to North Carolina and completes his language exam, course work, and oral and written exams for his Ph.D. in economics

 

Winter 1950                 Has a “peak experience” in North Carolina’s university library where a feeling of ecstasy about Mormon history convinces him that God has given him a commission to carry out a research program of Mormon history and to make that history available to others.

 

March 1951                 Makes a presentation on Mormon economic history to the Mormon Seminar which enables him to develop a theme for his dissertation: the consistent applications of antebellum policies in the Great Basin while the nation was adopting a more individualistic and freewheeling capitalism

 

September 1951           Meets with William Mulder, assistant editor of the Western Humanities Review, who convinces him to submit articles for publication

 

September 13, 1951     Carl Wayne is born

 

Winter 1951-1952       Writes his dissertation while on six months’ leave from Utah State Agricultural College

 

March 1952                 Returns again to North Carolina and successfully defends his dissertation, thereby acquiring a Ph.D. in economics with economic theory and economics-rural sociology as his fields

 

1954                            Submits his dissertation to the Committee on Research in Economic History, a Cambridge, Massachusetts non-profit organization “incorporated to encourage inquiry and publication in the field of economic history,” for publication

 

August 25, 1954           Susan Grace is born

 

1956-1957                   Receives a year’s fellowship at the Henry E. Huntington Library and Art Gallery in San Marino, where he revises and expands his dissertation

 

1957                            Resubmits his dissertation to the Committee on Research in Economic History which arranges for its publication by Harvard University Press

 

1958                            Great Basin Kingdom: An Economic History of the Latter-day Saints is published

 

1958-1959                   Receives a Fulbright Scholarship and serves as Fulbright Professor of American Economics at the University of Genoa and elsewhere in Italy

 

1961                            Becomes second counselor in the Utah State University Stake Presidency

 

Spring 1962                 Presents the Faculty Honor Lecture at Utah State University on the Japanese-American World War II Relocation Camp at Topaz, Utah

 

1963                            Is notified that Great Basin Kingdom has been placed in the president’s library in the White House, becoming the only book dealing with the history of the Mountain West in that library

 

1963                            Gives two lectures on the Mormons as part of the University of Texas’s television series of addresses on the history of American civilization, funded by the Ford Foundation

1963                            Becomes a charter member of the Western History Association, which is organized in Santa Fe, New Mexico

 

September 9, 1965       Along with thirteen other persons, organizes the Mormon History Association

 

December 28, 1965     Attends the first meeting of the Mormon History Association and is elected first president of that organization

 

1966                            Publishes Beet Sugar in the West: A History of the Utah-Idaho Sugar Company

 

1966                            Receives the Charles Redd Humanities Award from the Utah Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters

 

1966-1967                   Serves as Visiting Professor of History at the University of California at Los Angeles to replace John Walton Caughey, editor of the Pacific Historical Review

 

October 1967              Is elected vice president and president-elect of the Western History Association

 

December 1967           Is elected vice president and president-elect of the Agricultural History Society

 

Spring 1969                 Receives approval, along with S. George Ellsworth, from Utah State University to sponsor a scholarly journal for the Western History Association

 

May 1969                    Receives the David O. McKay Humanities Award from Brigham Young University

 

October 1969              Receives approval from the Western History Association to become editor of the newly-created Western Historical Quarterly

 

October 10, 1969        Presents his presidential address to the Western History Association, “Blessed Damozels: Women in Mormon History”

 

1969-1970                   Is appointed Distinguished Lecturer for Utah by the Utah Commission for Higher Education

 

April 17, 1970              Presents his presidential address to the Agricultural History Association, “Western Agriculture and the New Deal”

 

August 24, 1970           As a member of the Committee of Historians, meets with N. Eldon Tanner, counselor in the First Presidency of the LDS Church, to discuss the organization and function of the Church Historian’s Office

 

1971                            Publishes William Spry: Man of Firmness, Governor of Utah

 

January 6, 1972            Meets with N. Eldon Tanner, who asks him to become Church Historian

 

January 14, 1972          Public announcement of Leonard’s appointment as Church Historian, and as the Lemuel Redd Chair of Western History at Brigham Young University and director of the Charles Redd Center for Western Studies

 

April 6, 1972                Leonard’s name as Church Historian is presented to the general conference of the LDS Church for a sustaining vote

 

June 1972                    Moves his family to Salt Lake City, Utah

 

1973                            Completes “Bankers Extraordinary: A History of First Security Corporation, 1928-1973,” commissioned by the company but not released to the public

 

July 2, 1973                 Receives permission from the First Presidency to use the facilities of the Church Historical Department to complete a history of the Church for Alfred A. Knopf Publishing Company

 

1974                            Publishes Charles C. Rich: Mormon General and Western Frontiersman

 

1974                            Brigham Young’s Letters to His Sons, edited by Dean Jessee, becomes the first publication of Leonard’s historical department

 

1975                            Publishes David Eccles: Pioneer Western Industrialist

 

1975                            Joins general authorities, including President Spencer W. Kimball, for a three-week tour of the Far East

 

1976                            From Quaker to Latter-day Saint: Bishop Edwin D. Woolley is published, as is Building the City of God: Community and Cooperation Among the Mormons, co-written with Dean May and Feramorz Y. Fox

 

1976                            Mormon Sisters: Women in Early Utah, edited by Claudia L. Bushman, is published and recognizes Leonard’s interest in women’s history by dedicating the book “To Leonard Arrington: He takes us seriously.”

 

July 1976                     Story of the Latter-day Saints, a one-volume history of the LDS Church produced under the direction of the Church History Division, is published

 

September 20, 1976     Meets with the First Presidency to account for the Story of the Latter-day Saints, which some general authorities regard as offensive

 

April 29, 1977  G.        Homer Durham takes over as managing director of the Historical Department, thereby becoming Leonard’s “boss.”  Durham subsequently works to rein in the department, which he and other general authorities believe is running out of control and producing history that is not faith-promoting for Latter-day Saints

 

April 1979                    Alfred A. Knopf releases The Mormon Experience: A History of the Latter-day Saints, co-authored with Davis Bitton

 

September 4, 1979       Signs a contract with Alfred A. Knopf to produce a biography of Brigham Young

 

June 26, 1980              Meets with G. Homer Durham and Jeffrey R. Holland, president-designate of Brigham Young University, to discuss the transfer of the Historical Department to that institution

 

1981                            Publishes Saints Without Halos: The Human Side of Mormon History, co-written with David Bitton

 

1981-1982                   Serves as president of the Pacific Coast Branch of the American Historical Association

 

March 10, 1982           Grace dies from heart disease

 

Summer 1982               Official transfer of the Historical Department to Brigham Young University, ending Leonard’s association with the Church as Church Historian.  He becomes director of the Joseph Fielding Smith Institute for Church History, the new name of the Historical Department

 

1982-1987                   Continues teaching at Brigham Young University

 

November 19, 1983     Marries Harriet Horne from Salt Lake City

 

1984                            Publishes Tracy-Collins Bank and Trust Company: A Record of Responsibility and Sunbonnet Sisters: True Stories of Mormon Women and Frontier Life, co-written with Susan Arrington Madsen

 

April 23, 1984              Is notified that Brigham Young: American Moses has won the David Evans and Beatrice Cannon Evans Biography Award in its inaugural year

 

April 24, 1984              Successfully undergoes a sextuple heart bypass operation performed by Dr. Russell Nelson

April 1985                    Brigham Young: American Moses is released by Alfred A. Knopf

 

1985                            Receives the Mormon History Association’s Best Book Award for 1985 for Brigham Young: American Moses and is also nominated by the National Book Critics Circle for a “distinguished work of biography”

 

1986                            Publishes The Hotel, Salt Lake’s Classy Lady: The Hotel Utah, 1911-1986, co-written with Heidi Swinton

 

Summer 1986               Makes a two-week trip to England with Harriet to speak to stakes, wards, and general audiences on the Mormon experience in England, in preparation for the British Mission sesquicentennial in 1987

 

Summer 1986               Is notified that he has been elected a member of the Society of American Historians, the first Utahan and first Mormon to be so elected

 

1987                            Publishes Mothers of the Prophets, co-written with Susan Arrington Madsen, and In the Utah Tradition: A History of the Governor’s Mansion, co-written with Heidi Swinton

 

July 2, 1987                 Retires from his Brigham Young University duties

 

1988                            Publishes The Mormons and Their Historians, co-written with Davis Bitton

 

1990                            The Idaho Legislature passes a measure commissioning Leonard to write a full history of the state.

 

 

1991                            Publishes From Small Beginnings: A History of Steiner Corporation, American Linen Supply Company, and Their Affiliates

 

1992                            Publishes Harold F. Silver: Western Inventor, Businessman, and Civic Leader, co-written with John R. Alley, Jr.  Also sees the second editions of The Mormon Experience and Building the City of God appear

 

1993                            The second edition of Great Basin Kingdom is issued by the University of Utah Press

 

July 21, 1993               Presents the Juanita Brooks Lecture at the dedication of the renovated St. George Tabernacle

 

1994                            Publishes the two-volume History of Idaho

 

1994                            Makes a two-week trip to Hawaii, accompanied by Harriet, as a guest of Brigham Young University’s campus, and delivers five lectures on faith and intellect

 

1995                            Publishes Utah’s Audacious Stockman: Charlie Redd

 

November 7, 1995       Presents “Faith and Intellect as Partners in Mormon History” as the first lecture given in the Leonard J. Arrington Mormon History Lecture Series sponsored by Utah State University’s Special Collections & Archives

 

1996                            Receives the Governor’s Award in the Humanities

 

1998                            Publishes Madelyn Cannon Stewart Silver: Poet, Teacher, and Homemaker and Adventures of a Church Historian

 

December 14, 1998     Reaches an agreement with Utah State University’s Special Collections & Archives to establish the Leonard J. Arrington Historical Archives to house his papers, his family’s papers, and the papers of prominent scholars in Mormon History

 

 February 11, 1999      Dies in Salt Lake City from heart failure