Steven D. Bennion

Steven D. Bennion is a retired university administrator. He was born on August 17, 1941, in Salt Lake City, Utah, to Lowell and Merle Bennion. He spent the summers of his teen years working on a farm in Idaho’s Teton Valley. He was a student body president and three-spot athlete in high school. He served a six-month term in the army.

Bennion earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Utah. He earned his master’s in public administration from Cornell University. Upon graduation, he worked as a budget analyst for the governor of Wisconsin for two years and then budget and academic planner for the University of Wisconsin for ten years, from which he also received his doctorate degree in higher education administration.

He was president of Snow College in Ephraim, Utah, from 1982 to 1989. He became president of Ricks College (now BYU-Idaho) in Rexburg, Idaho, and served from 1989 to 1997. He then became president of Southern Utah University (Cedar City, Utah) and served until 2006. His grandfather, Milton Bennion, served as the first president of that university.

Bennion is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. As a young man, he served as a missionary to Scotland. He served as president of the New York New York South Mission. In 2013, he began his three-year service as president of the Manhattan New York Temple.

He and his wife, Marjorie, whom he married in 1963, are the parents of five children, four of whom are living.