Archives West Finding Aid

Ernest LeRoy Wilkinson was born in Ogden, Utah, on May 4, 1899, a son of Robert and Cecilia Anderson Wilkinson. He received his early education in Ogden schools and at Weber College (later Weber State University). In 1918 he became a cadet in the Student Army Training Corps at Brigham Young University (BYU). He graduated from BYU in 1921. He graduated from George Washington University Law School in 1926 and received the degree of Doctor of Juridical Science at Harvard University in 1927. Wilkinson was a member of the faculty of Weber College from 1921 to 1923 and the faculty of Business High School in Washington, D.C. from 1923 to 1926. He was admitted to the Washington, D.C., Bar in 1926; the Utah Bar in 1927; the New York Bar in 1928; and he held a professorship in law at New Jersey Law School from 1927 to 1933. He was chairman of the Fellows of the American Bar Association for the State of Utah.

While a student at BYU he met Alice Ludlow, and they were married in 1923. They were the parents of three sons and two daughters, all of whom attended BYU. The Wilkinsons lived in the Boston, New York City, and Washington, D.C., areas for a number of years. He served as president of the Manhattan Queens Branch of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), bishop of the Queens Ward, and a member of the Washington Stake Presidency.

Wilkinson took office as President of Brigham Young University in February 1951. During the twenty years he served, he gained national fame as he built BYU into the largest church-related university in the United States. Enrollment increased from 4,654 in 1950 to 25,021 in 1970, accompanied by an aggressive building program, an expansion of the faculty and the curriculum, and introduction of special programs. Under his guidance, the physical facilities were enlarged to a spacious and attractively designed campus of more than 300 buildings. His resignation was accepted by the BYU's Board of Trustees on March 9, 1971, effective at the end of that school year. He subsequently accepted an assignment to write a comprehensive history of Brigham Young University.

Ernest Wilkinson died in 1978.