Biography of Roy Bullen: 18th Mayor of Logan
Dates in Office: 1917-1920, appointed 5 April 1917
Terms in Office: 2
Age when Elected: 40
Roy Bullen was born 12 December 1877 in Richmond, Utah, a son of Herschel Bullen and Mary Josephine Whittle.He married Annie Nibley, 20 October 1911 and they had six children.He died 30 November 1930 in Salt Lake City and is buried in the Logan Cemetery.[1]
Roy Bullen, as mayor of Logan put his efforts in behalf of the upbuilding of this section of the state and the development of its natural resources. His powers as mayor were strongly exerted for the further benefit of his city with a view not only to meeting its needs and advancing its welfare but also with the purpose of meeting future conditions and demands.
After mastering the branches of learning taught in the district schools Roy Bullen continued his education in the Brigham Young College, which he attended for five years, graduating with the class of 1902.He afterward spent three years as a student in Harvard University and won the Bachelor of Science degree upon the completion of a course in civil engineering. In 1904 and 1905 he was president of the Harvard Engineering Society and was on the staff of the Engineering Journal. With the completion of his university course he entered the government reclamation service and was on active duty in Idaho for a year.
He then went to Salt Lake City where he entered upon the practice of his profession, remaining in the capital until 1909. That year he became engineer for the Promontory-Curlew Land Company of Logan and so remained until 1912 when he became an active factor in the development of irrigated and near Blue Creek in Box Elder County.He organized the Blue Creek Land Company and the Blue Creek Irrigation Company in 1912, and operating as a representative of those corporations, he has done much to develop the Blue Creek section.
On the 1st of January 1914, he was made city engineer of Logan, in which position he continued to serve until April,, 1917, when he was appointed mayor of the city by the city commissioners following the resignation of P.A. Thatcher. In November 1917 he was elected to the office and is Logan's chief executive. He gave the city a businesslike and progressive administration characterized by reforms and improvements and looking beyond the exigencies of the moment to the possibilities and opportunities of the future. He was a strong advocate of the commission manager form of government for municipalities. He closely studied many vital problems relative to city welfare and management and at the same time he kept abreast with the onward trend of his profession.To this end he became an associate member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, with which he was identified since 1906.
In July 1919, Mr. Bullen acquired a large interest in the Vitamin Company of Logan and since then has been vice president and general manager.This company owned a large fireproof concrete elevator and mill at Logan and various country elevators and warehouses throughout northern Utah and southern Idaho.Its business was devoted to the manufacture of Vitamin (whole wheat) flour and to dealing in grain and mill products.
Mr. Bullen was a member of the Commercial Booster Club and the Rotary Club of Logan. One of his chief interests was the question of good roads and he did everything in his power to support the work of improving the public highways and to educate the public to the necessity and benefit of improved roads.At the request of Governor Bamberger he was made a life member of the United States Good Roads Association.[2]
Roy Bullen was a prominent western business executive and president of the National Copper bank and vice president and general manage of the Sego Milk Products Company. He was also the director of the First Securities corporation and the Banker's Trust company; president and general manager of the Cloverleaf Harris Dairy Company, President of the Coleville Ice Cream company and a director of the Utah Idaho Sugar Company.[3]
[1] Family Group Record (FamilySearch Ancestral File v4.19)
[2] Warrum Noble, ed., Utah Since Statehood: Historical and Biographical (Chicago : S.J. Clarke Publishing Company, 1919) 4:346-349
[3] Obituary, The Journal, Logan City, Cache County, Utah, Monday December 1, 1930.
