In this Alumni Directory, our focus is on the often-forgotten BY Academy secondary senior classes between 1877 and 1903, and on the BY High School senior classes from 1904 to 1968.

In 1881 Brigham Young Academy's Scientific Department broke new ground by awarding a "collegiate diploma" to James E. Talmage, the first such BYA diploma to be issued. This raised serious questions about whether a secondary school could issue a "collegiate diploma" that would be recognized by colleges. James Talmage and others were required to take extra tests at other colleges before their collegiate credential was accepted.

BYU and the BYU Alumni Association keep records of BYA collegiate-level graduates, but have not in the past kept comprehensive lists of BYA high-school-level graduates. That is why our emphasis in this Directory is on high school graduates. Nevertheless, in this Directory we will also track the relatively small number of BYA students who received BYA collegiate degrees between 1881 to 1903, simply to avoid confusing the two groups, and because there is much overlapping. [We have also added the earliest BYU graduates, 1904 to 1935, for the same reasons.]

BY Academy High School Class of 1887. Hyrum Anderson received a Teacher's Certificate. Source: Deseret Evening News, May 21, 1887. ~ ~ BY Academy Collegiate Class of 1888. John Foote received a Diploma: Rhetoric, Physics, General Chemistry. Source: Deseret Evening News, May 28, 1888. Faculty & Staff: Hyrum A. Anderson, Commerce Teacher, 1888-1893. ~ ~ ~ ~ More about how Dr. H. A. Anderson became a member of the medical profession in the Deseret News, April 10, 2011.