George A. Croft Collection

George Albert Croft was born May 13, 1892, attended grammar school at the Lewis School in Ogden, Utah, and graduated from the Weber Stake Academy in 1911. He pursued a high school course which prepared him to enter the Engineering School at the University of Utah where he enrolled in September 1912. He withdrew later that year afflicted with rheumatic fever, and spent another year working to assist his widowed mother. He enrolled again at the University of Utah in 1914, but left a year later during the controversy over the administration of Joseph S. Kingsbury. He enrolled at the Utah State Agricultural College in Logan in September 1915. Over the course of the next two years, he came under the influence of Professor L. R. Humphreys of the farm mechanics department and studied automotive electricity and equipment. He worked during 1917-1918 as an instructor in farm machinery laboratory. Following his graduation in 1918, he served his enlistment in the U.S. Army by training army recruits sent to the USAC for classes in auto mechanics.

He was hired in August 1919 to teach auto mechanics, machine work, forging, and algebra at the Branch Agricultural College in Cedar City, Utah. His titles at the BAC included instructor in ironwork and instructor in machine, automobile, and tractor (1919-1924) and head of the Department of Mechanic Arts (1924-1930).

Croft and Arthur Morris organized the first successful Boy Scout troop in Cedar City during 1923 and served as scoutmasters for a period of years.

During the summers of 1921 to 1923, Croft worked for International Harvester Company. He traveled over northern Utah, Idaho, and western Wyoming assembling combine harvesters and teaching new owners how to use them for harvesting wheat.

In 1923, the Utah Parks Company was founded as a subsidiary of the Union Pacific to develop tourist travel to the new national parks of southern Utah and the Grand Canyon. Croft began working during the summer breaks from school as a supervisor for the Utah Parks Company. He installed a diesel-operated electric power plant at Bryce Canyon and operated it for two summer seasons. During the summer of 1928, he was employed as manager of the hydroelectric power plant in Bright Angel Canyon adjacent to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. He and a five-man crew operated the various machines and finished construction on the plant.

He resigned from the BAC faculty in 1930 and became the year-round supervisor of maintenance for the Utah Parks Company, a position he held until he was seventy years old. As the company grew, his responsibilities increased until he had charge of all company property in the parks and Cedar City, including new construction. He retired in June 1962. He was an active member of the Sons of Utah Pioneers. He died in Cedar City on May 12, 1973.