Franklin S. Harris, Jr.

Franklin S. Harris Jr. was born in Logan, Utah on May 24, 1912. As an adolescent, Harris became an Eagle Scout in the Boy Scouts of America and received the Silver Beaver award. He completed undergraduate and master's work at Brigham Young University, and later received a PhD in physics from the California Institute of Technology. He taught for two years at the University of British Columbia, then spent 20 years on faculty at the University of Utah. Harris joined the Aerospace Corp. in Los Angeles from 1963-1970, then returned to academia to become senior scientist with the Department of Chemistry and Institute of Oceanography at Old Dominion University in Hampton, Virginia.

Harris was enlisted by the managing editor of OSA’s Applied Optics to create an indexing system of subjects. Harris achieved this by working with a computer program in order to make subjects searchable and able to be edited based on further scientific research. He served as OSA's Journal Indexer for over 20 years. He also held the positions of Treasurer (1969-1970) and Vice President (1970-1971) with OSSC—a Southern California section of OSA. He received the Distinguished Service Award and was elected an OSA Fellow in 1965.

Besides being involved in several international scientific organizations, Harris participated actively in his community. He served in the German-Austrian Mission and the European Mission Office of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and was a High Priest in the Springdale Ward. For 31 years, he was a contributing editor to The Improvement Era and wrote two books analyzing the Book of Mormon.

Harris passed away in 1999.