Archives West Finding Aid

Heber J. Sears was born in Huntingtonshire, England, September 13, 1861, and came to Salt Lake City with his parents at the age of three years. He attended public school and when 15 years old was employed by the ZCMI. By the time he was 25 years old he had worked his way up to head bookkeeper and cashier of the Ogden branch of the company. He then left the mercantile business to fill an LDS mission in New Zealand.

Returning from the mission, Sears and David Kay of Ogden established a grain and feed business in Salt Lake City. He later became head of the Farr and Sears Company of Ogden. Sears moved to Chicago in 1894 to study medicine. For two years he studied at Rush Medical College and in 1902 organized the Crown Dental laboratory, which he owned and operated for 17 years. On June 5, 1906, Sears graduated from the college of physicians and surgeons of the University of Illinois and on July 2, 1906, passed the Utah state board of medical examiners.

He began his medical practice in Chicago and in 1919 returned to Salt Lake City to join the faculty at the University of Utah. Dr. Sears was a director of the Utah Savings and Trust Company, a past president of the Holladay Civic Betterment League, director and president of the Heber J. Sears Investment Company, member of the Ensign Social Club, director of the Utah Public Health Association and a former member of the Utah state and Salt Lake county medical societies.

In 1884 Sears married Belle Farr of Ogden. She died in 1936 and he married Flora Meyerhoffer.

(Biography taken from a February 25, 1942 Salt Lake Tribune article, " S. L. Physician Succumbs to Heart Attack on Coast." )