Joseph Francis Merrill (August 24, 1868 – February 3, 1952) was a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) from 1931 until his death. Merrill was a key figure in the development of the Church Educational System in the early twentieth century. He served as the sixth Commissioner of Church Education from 1928 to 1933. Prior to his service as commissioner, he played a significant role in the creation of the "released time" LDS Church seminary system. His tenure as commissioner saw the creation of the Institutes of Religion and the transfer of nearly all the remaining church schools to control of the states they resided in. He also faced a crisis in 1930 and 1931 which threatened to end the released time seminary, but the LDS Church education system survived the Great Depression under his leadership. In 1931, while still serving as commissioner, Merill was called to serve in the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. Early life Merrill was born in Richmond, Utah Territory. A great-grandson of noted Mormon pioneer Stillman Pond, grandson of church Patriarch Joseph C. Kingsbury, and son of LDS Church Apostle Marriner W. Merrill, Joseph was among the first Latter-day Saints from Utah to travel to the eastern United States to seek higher education. He studied at the University of Deseret, the University of Michigan, and Johns Hopkins University; he was the first native Utahn to receive a Ph.D. While at the University of Michigan, Merrill was the president of the Ann Arbor Branch of the LDS Church. In 1911, Merrill was called to serve in the presidency of the Granite Utah Stake of the LDS Church. Upon his return to Utah, in 1893, Merrill began teaching physics and assisting in chemistry at the University of Utah. In 1895, he became the first principal of the newly established School of Mines, now the University of Utah College of Engineering. (The Merrill Engineering building on the University of Utah campus is named in his honor.) Although the University of Utah established the mining school in the 1890s, it was little more than a basic assay and geology course until after increased funding in 1901. From then to 1928, when Merrill left, the school slowly emerged as one of the best of the mining engineering schools in the American West. Professor Merrill's career as head