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Royce S. Bringhurst Papers, 1918-2016

Overview of the Collection

Creator
Bringhurst, Royce S., 1918-2005.
Title
Royce S. Bringhurst Papers
Dates
1918-2016 (inclusive)
Quantity
59 boxes, (30.25 linear feet)
Collection Number
UUS_COLL MSS 515
Summary
This collection documents the life of Royce S. Bringhurst, a Bennion, Utah native who went on to become a strawberry pomologist at the University of California at Davis. It includes material from his mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, military service in WWII, pomology career, and retirement prior to his death in November of 2005.
Repository
Utah State University, Merrill-Cazier Library, Special Collections and Archives Division
Special Collections & Archives
Merrill-Cazier Library
Utah State University
Logan, UT
84322-3000
Telephone: 4357978248
Fax: 4357972880
scweb@usu.edu
Access Restrictions

Not available through interlibrary loan. Also, boxes 23 through 29 are restricted until 2046.

Languages
English
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Biographical Note

Royce S. Bringhurst was born on December 27, 1918 in Bennion, Utah. There he lived and worked on the family farm while attending high school at Granite High. After graduating high school in 1937, he enrolled in Utah State Agricultural College for two years before serving a two and a half year mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Spanish-American Mission beginning in 1939.

Royce was released from his mission in 1942 and soon after joined the United States Army Air Corps for combat service in World War II. Before Royce deployed for active duty, he married his high school sweetheart, Pearl Davidson, on May 14, 1942. Royce served in Corsica, Italy where he flew 65 combat missions in a B-25 bomber. Upon his return from the war, Royce completed his bachelor’s degree in agronomy at Utah State Agricultural College. Then he pursued a Master’s degree and PhD in agronomy and genetics from the University of Wisconsin.

Royce’s most significant position after graduate school was on the faculty of the University of California-Davis. There he worked to develop several new species of strawberries and played an active and leading role in the world’s community of strawberry growers and producers. Royce officially retired in 1990 and he and his wife Pearl later served an LDS mission in Chile from 1992 to 1994. After developing Parkinson’s disease later in life, Royce passed away in his California home on November 26, 2005.

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Content Description

This collection consists of a variety of different materials spanning the personal and professional life of Royce S. Bringhurst, including diaries, correspondence, audio recordings, publications, notes, reports, field data, awards, and other items. The personal papers include materials from Bringhurst’s childhood in the 1920s, high school and college days in the 1930s, mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the 1940s, and military service during World War II, as well as papers from his retirement in the 1990s and 2000s. The professional papers relate to his extensive career as a pomologist at University of California Davis from the 1950s to the 1990s.

The Royce S. Bringhurst papers cover a large span of time and would be of use to researchers pursuing a variety of topics. They contain firsthand accounts of Latter-day Saint (LDS) mission work in the American Southwest in the years preceding the Second World War as well as the experiences of a LDS soldier serving in the United States Air Corps during WWII. Additionally, these materials provide information about the development of strawberry pomology, a field in which Bringhurst garnered international attention throughout the 1970s and 1980s.

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Use of the Collection

Restrictions on Use

It is the responsibility of the researcher to obtain any necessary copyright clearances.

Permission to publish material from the Royce S. Bringhurst Papers must be obtained from the Special Collections Manuscript Curator and/or the Special Collections Department Head.

Preferred Citation

Initial Citation: Royce S. Bringhurst USU_COLL MSS 515, Box [ ]. Special Collections and Archives. Utah State University Merrill-Cazier Library. Logan, Utah.

Following Citations:USU_COLL MSS 515, USUSCA.

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Administrative Information

Arrangement

The organization of documents in this collection has largely been kept in the same order the material was donated. The items have been organized into the two broad categories: personal papers and professional papers. Each category has been further sperated into several subcategories based on material type.

Processing Note

Processed in April 2016

Acquisition Information

These materials were donated to Special Collections and Archives in 2016 by John R. Bringhurst, Royce and Pearl Bringhurst’s son.

Related Materials

Royce S. Bringhurst photograph collection

Separated Materials

The books and photographs in the collection were transferred to the respective currators and inventoried in their collections.

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Detailed Description of the Collection

Names and SubjectsReturn to Top

Subject Terms

  • Agriculture--Study and teaching (Higher).
  • College teachers--California--Davis.
  • Fruit-culture--Study and teaching (Higher).
  • World War, 1939-1945.

Personal Names

  • Bringhurst, John R.
  • Bringhurst, Pearl.
  • Bringhurst, Royce S., 1918-2005
  • Bringhurst, Royce S., 1918-2005--Career in Pomology.

Corporate Names

  • Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints--Missions.
  • United States.--Army Air Forces.--Bomb wing, 57th.
  • University of California, Davis.
  • University of Wisconsin.
  • Utah State Agricultural College.

Finding aid/Register created by Cody Patton and Clint Pumphrey
2016

CC Attribution
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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