Ericksen, Ephraim Edward

Born in Denmark, converted to LDS church, emigrated to Utah in 1864 and settled in Bear River City, Logan and Preston. A missionary to Denmark.

Professor of philosophy at the University of Utah; one of the first modern professionals to deal with Mormon history and philosophy.

Ephraim Edward (known as E.E.) Ericksen was born into the second family of Danish emigrant Bendt Jensen Ericksen of Logan, Utah, at the turn of 1882. After grammar school membership in the first graduating class of the Oneida Stake Academy, Ericksen returned to Logan to attend Brigham Young College. It was under his instructors here that the young man decided to professionally pursue the study of philosophy and to do so at the University of Chicago.

Before completing undergraduate work at the BYC, Ericksen met and married Edna Clark of Auburn, Wyoming. The couple returned to Chicago where Ephraim continued graduate school under the tutelage of James H. Tufts, a notable American thinker and philosopher. It was in Chicago that Ericksen "began to examine more critically my religious heritage." In the homes of married couples near campus Latter-day Saint students would meet to discuss their religion and church. It was here that Ericksen was exposed to scientific and sociological methodology in the consideration of his culture. The fruit of discussions in this circle, his primary study interest in moral philosophy with a minor emphasis in economics, was his doctoral dissertation, "The Psychological and Ethical Aspects of Mormon Group Life," completed in 1918. It was published by the university in 1922.

In 1911 Ericksen accepted an appointment as principle of the Murdock Academy in Beaver, Utah. Here he taught in and administered the four-year prep/normal/reform/high school. In 1914 he requested a leave of absence to continue his work at the University of Chicago. Upon completion of his Ph.D. he returned to Utah, not to Beaver, but to Salt Lake City where he accepted a $1700 annual salary to teach in the Philosophy Department at the University of Utah. Here he remained as a well respected instructor, department head, and dean of the College of Arts and Sciences until his retirement in 1948.

He wrote a textbook titled Social Ethics, as well as an autobiography. Ephraim Edward Ericksen died in 1967.