BYU-Idaho Academic Vice President Jon Linford will retire at the close of the Winter 2026 semester.

Linford has been part of BYU-Idaho since 2004, but his connection to the school goes back to 1977, when he began as a student at Ricks College studying singing and opera. Since then, he has served the institution in various roles—as a student, teacher, and administrator—continuing his involvement to the present day.

“[The] only time I haven’t been in school my whole life--either taking it or teaching it--was when I was on my mission,” Linford said.

After his first year at college, Linford served a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Scotland from 1978 to 1980. When he returned to Ricks College, Linford met his wife Evelyn.

After Rexburg, Linford received his bachelor's and master's degrees from BYU and his doctorate at Arizona State University.

"It was all in vocal performance," Linford said. "I did quite a bit of performing around."

From Las Cruces to Rexburg

In 1987, Linford got a teaching job at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces. Linford taught voice and directed the opera program there for 17 years.

According to Linford, his family became very settled in Las Cruces, with the Church, the university and the community. Linford said they had no plans to leave

“I looked around at some point for other jobs, but I couldn’t find anything I liked better than NMSU and kind of stopped applying for other jobs," Linford said.

That all changed in 2004, when Linford heard about an open teaching positions at the recently re-named BYU-Idaho.

“I had a couple of friends who called me and said, ‘You know, BYUI [is] a four-year school now, maybe you’d be interested in coming, we’ve got a job that’s opening up, you want to come and apply for it?’” Linford said.

Linford agreed but wasn't planning on taking any jobs in Rexburg at the time.

“I came, and really didn’t have any intention of taking the job,” Linford said. “I thought, ‘Well, I’ll take a look at it, it’d be fun to see it.’ And then got here and just really felt like this was the thing to do.”

Evelyn was hesitant to uproot the family and leave Las Cruces, but Linford said that she eventually got that same feeling. They moved to Rexburg that same year. Linford became a voice teacher and opera director at BYUI.

Foundations and Pathways

Linford worked in that position until 2008, when he became associate dean of the College of Performing and Visual Arts. He was also on the curriculum council and working on Foundations, the general education program started by President Kim B. Clark.

After a couple of years in those roles, Linford became the dean of the college but held the position for only about eight months. He then moved on to be the dean over Foundations.

“I did that for five years, responsible for making sure that we had teachers to teach these classes and for the quality of the programs,” Linford said. “We just were constantly working to improve that program.”

Being in charge of Foundations is what led Linford to developing online courses for these general education programs.

“Because it was general education, we needed to have a lot of it online,” Linford said. “We wanted to have a clear path of it online. I did a lot of work with online development at that point.”

When Clark G. Gilbert became president of BYUI in 2015, he started an online program. President Gilbert then asked Linford to be the vice president of that online section.

When President Gilbert took the role as president of BYU Pathway, Linford found himself with a new assignment.

“When he [Gilbert] became the president of BYU Pathway and president [Henry J.] Eyring became the president of BYUI, they asked me if I could split my time,” Linford said. “I’d be a vice president in BYU Pathway and a vice president in BYUI.”

Splitting his time as vice president at BYUI and at Pathway meant that Linford had a weekly commute between Rexburg and Salt Lake City. He would drive to Salt Lake City on Monday for Pathway work, then he would drive back to Rexburg on Thursday.

“I learned a lot about online,” Linford said. “I got to travel all over the world and meet all our Pathway students–not all of them, but a lot of them–and work to improve relationships between our programs and other aspects of the church.”

Linford worked with Pathway for three years, spending time in the Church Office Building and meeting Pathway students all over the world.

“I loved working with BYU Pathway and seeing students who had really no opportunity to grow and take college be able to do that,” Linford said.

When the COVID-19 pandemic started in 2020, Linford began to run Pathway over Zoom. Eventually, he got yet another assignment.

“It wasn’t very long before my predecessor in this job, Kelly Burgener, was called to be a mission president in Thailand,” Linford said. “He went to do that, and so President Eyring asked me to move over and take this job, the academic vice president job.”

Linford started his position as academic vice president in 2021. Next semester, Associate Academic Vice President Greg Roach will take over for Linford.

“I’ve been able to work with him and teach him and show him things about what we do and get his counsel on things for the last year-and-a-half,” Linford said. “He’s certainly very prepared to take that position.”

Greg Roach said that Linford has been “an amazing mentor” in helping Roach

“I’ve started assuming responsibilities as Jon has just started to shift things onto me,” said Roach. “Jon has probably done more to prepare me than I’ve done to prepare myself."

Roach said that Linford is “supremely talented,” and that he loves people and focuses on what the students need. He also praised Linford for his vast experience.

“Jon has such a wide breadth of experience,” Roach said. “I don’t think we’ve ever had a vice president that had that breadth of view, so what he brings is all of that prior experience to the work that he does.”

A look back

Looking back, Linford said he has loved his time at BYUI.

“I’m glad I came here,” Linford said. “I wouldn’t do it any other way.”

Since he started his time at BYUI as a voice teacher, Linford said that he “never dreamt” he would be in charge of Pathway or online learning.

“It hasn’t been an easy job in a lot of ways,” Linford said. “There have been a number of difficult things attached to it, but the rewards have been great. I’ve really enjoyed learning all that I’ve learned and especially getting to know the people that I’ve gotten to know. I wouldn’t trade that for anything.”

Linford said that he loves working with BYUI students. He also expressed love for the faculty, saying that one of his favorite parts of being academic vice president was interviewing incoming faculty and learning from them.

“I found that my story about being brought here, I didn’t plan on coming here but I felt like it was the right thing to do, that’s a very, very common story," Linford said. "I think everybody comes here because they’re brought here, and I think the students do too. There’s just a sense of, they’re brought here by the hand of the Lord.”

Roach acknowledges the amount of talent leaving BYUI with Linford. He also said that he is confident in the university's deans and faculty.

“I will miss him,” Roach said. “I will miss his wisdom and his institutional knowledge, because he’s been through all of it and seen all of it. That’s a huge amount of knowledge that is just walking out the door.

Advice for students

Linford advised students to “hold on, hold fast [and] don’t give up.” He said that it's important to have dreams and aspirations.

“Don’t be afraid of your dreams [and] don’t be afraid of having a vision,” Linford said. “Pick something out that you think you want to do and trust yourself to be able to do it. With the Lord’s help, you can do those things.”

Linford said that when faced with hard choices, it's important to “pray, seek the Lord’s help [and] double your efforts." College presents challenges, but Linford said that there is “no way” that a college education can be a bad thing.

“A lot of times in our life we come face-to-face with very difficult things,” Linford said. “Sometimes when we encounter something difficult, we take it as a ‘sign’ that it’s not the right thing to do. That’s not the truth about just about anything worthwhile. Sometimes, in fact, when things are put in our way it’s an invitation to keep going.”

Overall, Linford said that he has loved being able to spend time working with students and faculty at BYUI.

“It’s a wonderful place to spend your life working with the students and the faculty and the other employees here at BYUI," Linford said.