the agricultural adviser to the Shah, Reza Shah, and the Iran government in 1939. Harris' first project was to inspect the structure and performance of the agricultural college in Karaj. He also studied Iran's forestry problem while working to improve Iran's Department of Agriculture. After a year contract Harris returned to Provo to manage BYU as its president. His relationships in Iran attracted Iranian students to the United States and specifically to Utah to study. On March 10, 1950 Harris was asked by the Office of Foreign Agricultural Relations of the United States Department of Agriculture if he would be head the United States international technical collaboration program part of Truman's Point Four program in Iran. That July Harris and his wife returned to Iran where he worked in the United States embassy and at the Iranian Ministry of Agriculture. Esfahanak, Markazi was chosen as the first demonstration site for the Point Four program. The village of Esfahanak had continually struggled in agriculture, education, and health. A drain was dug to reduce mosquito-breeding water and old buildings were repaired to become schools. In 1951 Harris helped relocate funds from the Point Four program for emergency aid as a large plague of locusts couldn't be controlled through local methods. The Point Four program created confusion as to who was supposed to oversee work in Iran. Harris became the program's technical director and worked to get the Point Four program operating. Of Harris' two-year contract in Iran it took a year to sign the Point Four program into action. Harris also served as the president of the LDS Church branch headquartered in Tehran, as reported in the October 1951 general conference. Middle East In 1945 Harris was asked to lead a three-man mission to the Middle East by the United States Department of State and Agriculture. The purpose of the mission was to help survey foreign agricultural situations and provide "American agricultural experience" to the Middle East. The first stop was Egypt where the group focused on diplomatic activities. The mission traveled through Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Greece surveying agricultural conditions. Back in the United States Harris gave a speech to the Institute of World Affairs in December 1948 where he addressed his recommendations for Middle Eastern advancement. He believed educating the area's population on agricultural improvement would sustain agriculture in these countries as well as provide new developments