Michael Perry and Dr. Brian Cannon, History Department
During his notable scientific career, which spanned six decades, Harvey Fletcher pioneered research in the development of hearing aids, audiometers, and stereophonic sound. At various times he was president of the American Physical Society, the Acoustical Society of America (which he co-founded), and the American Hearing Society. He also served for many years as Director of Physical Research at Bell Laboratories, one of the leading scientific research centers in the country. Later in life he founded the College of Engineering and Physical Sciences at Brigham Young University and became its first dean. Throughout his illustrious career, Harvey Fletcher remained a faithful Latter-day Saint and served in various leadership positions within the Church for nearly thirty years.
As a young boy, Fletcher had a unique experience in the Provo Tabernacle which largely shaped the direction of his life. After delivering a short, memorized speech, young Fletcher moved to return to his seat but was stopped by Karl Maeser, a noted educator and one of the founding fathers of BYU. Addressing the congregation, Brother Maeser said, in effect, “This boy will go a long way in the Church and among the leaders of men. Someday this boy will be a great man.” A few years later, while he was still a teenager, Fletcher was asked to give an impromptu speech to a group of priesthood brethren. Flustered, the teenage boy blurted out simply, “I would rather be good than great.” This became something of a personal creed for the young Provo boy. He did not seek fame or fortune in his life, but focused instead on living the teachings of the LDS Church. Along the way, however, he accomplished much as a scientist and made great strides in the field of communication acoustics. When he died, the following words were inscribed on his gravestone: “Harvey Fletcher: Both Good and Great.”
I wrote a biography of Harvey Fletcher as my honors thesis, primarily because no biography of his life existed previously. My aim was to examine his life in the context of his quest to put his religion first in his life, but I also endeavored to discuss his many notable scientific breakthroughs. Much of my task was difficult in light of the fact that Fletcher, in his unpublished autobiography and even in his personal correspondence, often refused to acknowledge his own professional accomplishments and usually referred to them as results of a team effort. While evidencing his humility, this practice of Fletcher’s to avoid credit for his achievements presents many obstacles to the study of his life and many questions will forever remain unanswered. I tried to resolve ambiguities fairly, without giving undue credit to Fletcher, but this was difficult in light of the fact that I am a great-grandson of Harvey Fletcher and hold him in very high esteem. I hope I was able to approach the material with relative objectivity, however.
Ultimately, the project was very rewarding to me personally and I learned a great deal about the historical method through the year-long project. The final product was a 168-page biography that spans Fletcher’s entire life. I presented one chapter of the biography at the 2006 Utah Regional Student Phi Alpha Theta Conference and won an award for “Best Undergraduate Paper.” I am currently pursuing a promising opportunity to get this same chapter published in a prominent scientific journal. In August, 2006, I graduated from BYU and am currently a student at Harvard Law School.