Stella Harris Oaks

Stella Harris Oaks

Assistant Mayor, Educator, and Advocate

PHS Class of 1924

Stella Harris was born July 26, 1906, and raised in a farmhouse near Payson, Utah that did not have running water and indoor plumbing. Her father Silas Albert was a poet, idealist, and schoolteacher driven to farming by economic necessity. He gave Stella a love of books and learning and, in her words, "a joy in living intellectually." Her mother Chasty was a gifted homemaker and an articulate teacher of pioneer and family values. After graduating from PHS in 1924, Stella attended Brigham Young University, earning a bachelor’s degree in 1927. She began teaching school to pay her school debts and to enable her younger sisters to go to college.

After ten years of marriage to Dr. Lloyd Oaks, a doctor with a thriving medical practice in Twin Falls, Idaho, her husband passed away, leaving her a widow with small children. She moved back to Utah and taught high school in Vernal. Stella then attended the prestigious Columbia University in New York City, graduating in 1946 with a master's degree in guidance and personnel administration.

After her master's degree, she moved to Provo, Utah where she led the adult education program for the Provo School District. In addition, she became an outspoken advocate for mental health issues and founded the Child Guidance Clinic in Provo. Later she served on the Provo City Council and as Assistant Mayor.

The Stella H. Oaks Foundation, a nonprofit organization that provides scholarships for single mothers, was named in her honor and continues her legacy. Notably, her son Dallin Oaks was a justice on the Utah Supreme Court, president of Brigham Young University, and later an apostle for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Inducted 1977