Paul Hyer was born in Utah to Ariel C. and Johanna Hyer in 1926. He served in the US Navy during World War II in the Pacific from 1944 to 1946. He then served another two years as a missionary in Japan from 1946 to 1948 in the Central Pacific Mission. He then married Harriet Johns 15 December 1948. He received a bachelor's in history from Brigham Young University in 1951, master's in Asian history and Asian social institutions from Berkeley in 1953, and PhD in Asian history also from Berkeley in 1961. Hyer became a professor of history at Brigham Young University. Among his accomplishments there, he founded the Asian studies program in 1960. He spent over fourteen years in Asia and lectured at five Chinese universities. He also served as mission president in Taiwan from 1982 to 1985 and as temple president in Taiwan from 1988 to 1990. He was appointed executive director of the International Society.
From the guide to the Paul Hyer faculty and family papers, bulk 1950-1990, 1941-2008, (L. Tom Perry Special Collections)
