Benjamin Cluff

Founding of Brigham Young University In Cluff's last official act, he proposed to the board that the academy be named "Brigham Young University". At first there was a large amount of opposition to this. Many members of the board thought that the school wasn't large enough to be a university. However, the decision ultimately passed. One opponent to the decision, Anthon H. Lund, later said, "I hope their head will grow big enough for their hat."

In 2012, the Benjamin Cluff Plant Science Laboratory building at 550 East 800 North was razed and the Life Science building constructed in its place. Currently, there is no building on the BYU campus named after Benjamin Cluff, the last principal of Brigham Young Academy and first president of Brigham Young University.

Later life After resigning in 1903, Cluff moved to Mexico to establish a rubber plantation and once again had trouble in Mexico. At one point he was held by bandits for 2 weeks and during his absence his family was robbed. He worked with mahogany and shipped some lumber to California which caused him to decide to move his family to California, where he opened a grocery store and gas station. He died on June 14, 1948, at the age of 90.

Family life Cluff was husband to three wives and fathered 25 children. Two of his wives were sisters, Eliza Arnette Foster (1841-1880) and Mary Ellen Foster (1837-1907).