 After a visit to his native country, where he also labored as a Mormon missionary, he was chosen business manager and managing editor of the Deseret News, the principal newspaper in Utah at the time, and even today the second-largest newspaper by circulation between Denver and San Francisco.In 1867, Calder was asked by Brigham Young to establish a commercial college in Salt Lake City, which subsequently enolved into one of the components of the University of Utah.Calder ran the Deseret Musical Association in the late 1850s, which was largely a school teaching children to sing in choruses.