Louis F. Moench

Louis F. Moench was the founding president of Weber Stake Academy.

Moench was born on July 29, 1847, in Neuffen, Germany. He came to Chicago, Illinois, with his family and later graduated with honors from Bryant & Stratton College. He planned to teach college in California, but in 1864, after a stop in Salt Lake City where he encountered kind members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, he stayed in Utah and was baptized. Beginning in 1867, he was an instructor at the University of Deseret then taught at a “Select School” where only a selected group of students attended, including Brigham Young’s sons and daughters. In 1872, he moved to Ogden, Utah, to organize and teach at the Ogden Seminary. In 1875, he also accepted the Superintendent of Schools position for Weber County. He retired in 1883. Beginning in 1889, he was the first principal of Weber Stake Academy and was considered its first president. He filled a second term beginning in 1894. David O. McKay succeeded him in 1902.

While serving as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ, he published many Church materials in German, including a hymn he set to music by George F. Root. The hymn, “Hark, All Ye Nations,” was later translated into English and was included in the 1985 Hymns of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

He was also the assistant superintendent of the Weber Stake Sunday Schools.

Moench died on April 25, 1916.