William Mulder (1915-2008) was born on 24 June 1915 in Haarlem, Netherlands. His family emigrated to America in 1920, as a result of his family's conversion to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. After having lived in New Jersey for six years, the Mulders moved to Salt Lake City, Utah. In 1940 William Mulder graduated from the University of Utah with a B.A. degree in English. Following service in the U.S. Army during World War II, Bill returned to the University of Utah where in 1947 he earned a M.A. in English and became a faculty member in the English department. Mulder continued his graduate studies at Harvard University receiving his Ph.D. in 1955 in an interdisciplinary program called the History of American Civilization. His doctoral dissertation entitled Homeward to Zion: The Mormon Migration from Scandinavia was published by the University of Minnesota Press (1957) and was acclaimed as a pioneer work in the field of American immigration history. Teaching at the University of Utah from 1947 to 1987, Mulder was instrumental in the founding of the U of U's Institute for American Studies and the establishment of the Center for Intercultural Studies. His administrative talents and scholarly achievements were recognized on numerous occasions. Subsequent to teaching American literature as a 1957 Fulbright scholar at Osmania University in India, Professor Mulder served as Director of the American Studies Research Center in Hyderabad, India, during 1965-1968 and 1979-1982. Indian specialists in American literature composed a festschrift (1976) honoring Professor Mulder's contributions to the promotion of American Studies in India. Active in several national and state scholarly organizations, Bill was a member of the American Studies Advisory Committee for the Fulbright program, served as the secretary-treasurer of the American Literature Section of the Modern Language Association, was editor of the "Western Humanities Review", and was president of the Utah Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters. Among his many honors were the 1977 U of U Distinguished Teaching Award, the 1987 Utah Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters Award in the Humanities, the 1989 U of U Alumni Association Award of Merit, the 1999 Governor's Award in the Humanities from the Utah Humanities Council, and the 2005 Cathedral of the Madeleine Award for Distinguished Service to the Arts and Humanities.
From the guide to the William Mulder papers, 1918-2008, (J. Willard Marriott Library, University of Utah)
