of the University of Utah School of Mines coincided with a rapid growth in the Utah mining industry. Major scientific discoveries and technological innovations brought the industry out of the era of the lone-prospector and small company mine and mill operation to a world dominated by multi-national corporations working on massive scales, which required a large body of degreed mining engineers, metallurgists, industrial chemists, and other college-educated workers. Early graduates of the program quickly found work in the industry, nearby then globally. In 1913, Professor Merrill successfully attracted funding for a metallurgical research center cooperatively staffed by the university and by the new U. S. Bureau of Mines. The Utah experiment station funded original research by students, who received fellowships, as well as university faculty and staff members of the U. S. Bureau of Mines. Breakthroughs in understanding of the flotation process, cyanide extraction process, of radium (by Samuel C. Lind), and a host of other topics including smelter smoke abatement studies were major contributions in the field. During Merrill's tenure the School of Mines also expanded to offer additional degrees in engineering, including civil engineering, electrical engineering, and chemical engineering. During the mid-1910s, the School of Mines of the University of Utah added "and engineering school" to its name. In 1928, the university determined the funds for mining and metallurgy research were better spent elsewhere, and the cuts caused staff to leave, such as Antoine Marc Gaudin, a leading metallurgical scientist who left for MIT. Prof. Merrill retired that year as well. In 1898, Merrill married Annie Laura Hyde, the daughter of Alonzo Hyde and Annie Taylor Hyde. Merrill and his wife would become the parents of seven children. Their home was a welcome and an important part of the social life of students in the early mining engineering classes. Church education role Upon hearing his wife relate stories from the Book of Mormon she had learned in a class taught by James E. Talmage, Merrill began to seek means for students attending public high schools to have some form of weekday religious education. Influenced by Christian seminaries he had seen at the University of Chicago, Merrill worked with the Granite School Board and the Church General Board of Education to secure the necessary funding and legal rights to open an LDS seminary next to Granite High School. In his search for a proper teacher to instruct the youth,