Process Paper
In my family, we have many stories about Joseph E. Greaves. He is my great-great-grandfather. His wife, Pernecy Dudley Greaves, my great-great-grandmother, died in the 1918 influenza pandemic. Although Professor Greaves played a significant part in the history of Utah State University and in the history of Utah, much of his history and many of these stories are not available on print or accessible on the internet. I wanted to collect some of these stories and organize a brief history to inform other people of his life's work and to preserve his memory.
I conducted my research by interviewing descendants, reviewing oral histories, and reviewing transcripts of his funeral services and the dedication service of the building named in his honor. I also retrieved newspaper articles from that period and photographs in the family collection. I studied some of his published works and private letters. I used the internet to research information about the context of his life, such as the 1918 flu pandemic and the history of Utah State University.
I selected the website format because I thought it would make the information easily accessible to people located anywhere with internet access, and I felt that the images would help leave a clear impression of Joseph Greaves and his work.
Joseph Greaves exercised strong leadership because few people believed that diseases could come from germs, which are invisible. In 1929, Dr. Greaves discovered the source of a typhoid fever outbreak in Brigham City, Utah, preventing an epidemic. He also successfully lobbied the Mormon Church to change its practice from using a common cup for sacramental communion to using individual cups, which he felt were safer. He was a superb leader during his many years as a department head at Utah State Agricultural College, and the university’s current national scientific prestige is part of his legacy. On May 20, 1983, the university dedicated the Joseph E. Greaves Microbiological Laboratory in his honor. He left a profound legacy in the students he taught, in the lives that he saved, and in the strength of the university he helped build.
I conducted my research by interviewing descendants, reviewing oral histories, and reviewing transcripts of his funeral services and the dedication service of the building named in his honor. I also retrieved newspaper articles from that period and photographs in the family collection. I studied some of his published works and private letters. I used the internet to research information about the context of his life, such as the 1918 flu pandemic and the history of Utah State University.
I selected the website format because I thought it would make the information easily accessible to people located anywhere with internet access, and I felt that the images would help leave a clear impression of Joseph Greaves and his work.
Joseph Greaves exercised strong leadership because few people believed that diseases could come from germs, which are invisible. In 1929, Dr. Greaves discovered the source of a typhoid fever outbreak in Brigham City, Utah, preventing an epidemic. He also successfully lobbied the Mormon Church to change its practice from using a common cup for sacramental communion to using individual cups, which he felt were safer. He was a superb leader during his many years as a department head at Utah State Agricultural College, and the university’s current national scientific prestige is part of his legacy. On May 20, 1983, the university dedicated the Joseph E. Greaves Microbiological Laboratory in his honor. He left a profound legacy in the students he taught, in the lives that he saved, and in the strength of the university he helped build.