McDonald, Howard S. (Howard Stevenson), 1894-1986

Howard S. McDonald served as president of Brigham Young University from 1945 to 1949. His appointment was intended to reaffirm the University's commitment to education informed by religion. He demanded quality service from faculty and staff members and quality scholarship and character from the students who graduated from the University.

Mormon missionary, soldier, student, family man, religious leader, boys camp counselor, and superintendent for public schools.

McDonald was a president of Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah.

Howard Stevenson McDonald (1894-1986) served as the sixth president of Brigham Young University from 1945-1949.

Howard Stevenson McDonald was born July 18, 1894. On November 14, 1945 Howard S. McDonald was inaugurated as the sixth president of Brigham Young University. A time of great growth for the university, enrollment doubled from 2,700 students in the fall of 1945 to 5,400 students in the 1947-1948 school year. McDonald spent most of his tenure working tirelessly to increase the number of buildings on campus, to solidify the organizational structure of the university and to recruit additional faculty members. He created the Dean of Students Office to oversee non-academic programs on campus and welcomed over eighty new faculty to the campus.

Beginning in 1946 McDonald began lobbying the Board of Trustees for funds to build a science building, a library addition, a student union building, additional dormitories, and a fine arts building. Funds for the science building were appropriated in 1946, but construction did not begin until 1948 and the building was not completed until after the end of McDonald’s administration. McDonald also worked diligently to obtain surplus military housing from the Ogden arsenal. Using funds from the Federal Works Program, he oversaw the conversion of forty-five temporary buildings into a student housing complex called Wymount Village.

Following his tenure as president of BYU, he served as president of Los Angeles City College from 1949-1958 and president of Los Angeles State College from 1958 to 1962.