Royce S. Bringhurst was born on December 27, 1918 in Bennion, Utah. There he lived and worked on the family farm while attending high school at Granite High. After graduating high school in 1937, he enrolled in Utah State Agricultural College for two years before serving a two and a half year mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Spanish-American Mission beginning in 1939.

Royce was released from his mission in 1942 and soon after joined the United States Army Air Corps for combat service in World War II. Before Royce deployed for active duty, he married his high school sweetheart, Pearl Davidson, on May 14, 1942. Royce served in Corsica, Italy where he flew 65 combat missions in a B-25 bomber. Upon his return from the war, Royce completed his bachelor’s degree in agronomy at Utah State Agricultural College. Then he pursued a Master’s degree and PhD in agronomy and genetics from the University of Wisconsin.

Royce’s most significant position after graduate school was on the faculty of the University of California-Davis. There he worked to develop several new species of strawberries and played an active and leading role in the world’s community of strawberry growers and producers. Royce officially retired in 1990 and he and his wife Pearl later served an LDS mission in Chile from 1992 to 1994. After developing Parkinson’s disease later in life, Royce passed away in his California home on November 26, 2005.