Dividing his time between Utah and California, A. Russell Mortensen spent his early professional years as a teacher, administrator and editor. Born in Salt Lake City to Arlington Peter and Fannie Burnham Mortensen on January 30, 1911, he was raised in southern California. Mortensen returned to Utah in the early 1930s to attend Brigham Young University. While there he met and married Bessie Burch, a native of Spanish Fork, Utah. After receiving a B. S. in history in 1937 Mortensen became principal of the Garfield County Cannonville School for one year.
The Mortensens spent two years in California while he worked on a masters' degree, awarded in 1940 from the University of California at Los Angeles, before returning to Utah. For the next six years Mortensen was a history instructor at Provo High School. His teaching was interrupted during World War II when he served in the Pacific Theatre as a Naval Communications Officer.
Following the war, the couple again returned to California and Mortensen returned to the U.C.L.A. campus. For the next four years Mortensen worked toward a doctorate in history acting as a Teaching Assistant at U.C.L.A. and later as an instructor of U.S. and Latin American History at San Bernardino Valley College. While in San Bernardino, Mortensen continued his association with the U.S. Navy as the Assistant Training Officer at the U.S. Naval Reserve Training Center.
A. Russell Mortensen received his Ph.D. from the University of California at Los Angeles in 1950. That same year his wife, Bessie, died following the birth of their sixth child. With this blow Mortensen removed his family to Utah where he accepted the position of Director of the Utah Historical Society and editor of its journal Utah Historical Quarterly . During his eleven years as director he wrote a number of articles for the Utah Historical Quarterly, other journals, and local newspapers. In 1958 the book Among the Mormons, co-authored with William Mulder, was published. It was also during these years that he married Florence Page.
In 1961 Mortensen became director of the University of Utah Press, and Professor of History and Library Science at the university. The Western History Association and the university were sponsoring a new quarterly journal, the American West, for which Mortensen served as editor between 1962 and 1967. While editor, his second wife died and he married Dorothy Zackrison Summerhays.
Following his resignation as editor of the American West due to a controversy over his possible conflict of interest as a stockholder in the new American West Publishing Company, Mortensen continued to teach at the University of Utah. He was also a visiting professor at the University of Alabama. During his years with the university he was involved in other historical projects. In 1969 he served as a member of the board of the Utah Historic Survey Committee. With sketches done by Carlos Andreson, the University of Utah Press published Mortensen's Early Utah Sketches in 1970.
Between 1970 and 1976 Mortensen worked in Washington, D. C. with the National Park Service as Assistant and then Chief Historian. He was also the director of the NPS Historic Site Preservation Program and an Advisory Board Member for the State and the National Bicentennial Series.
The American Association for State and Local History, for which he has served as Council Member, General Editor, Secretary, and President, presented him with an Award of Distinction, for his work in the historical field, in 1979. This one joined his awards for the American West, the Joint Award of Merit with the Utah Historical Society, and his award as co-author of Among the Mormons .
Throughout his career, Mortensen served with a number of Utah groups including the Family Service Society, the State Parks Commission, the State Library Commission and the Utah Folklore Society. He was also a member of professional and special interest organizations which include the Western History Association, the American Association for State and Local History, Utah Westerners' Club and the Utah Sons of Pioneers.
From the guide to the A. Russell Mortensen papers, 1830-1996, (J. Willard Marriott Library, University of Utah)
