West was born and raised in Ogden, Utah Territory, to Joseph A.

From 1935 to 1937, West was the second assistant to Albert E. Bowen, the head of the LDS Church's Young Men's Mutual Improvement Association.

In 1936, he became the eighth Commissioner of Church Education, a position he held until he retired in 1953.

They later divorced and, West married Violet Madsen, February 12, 1920 of Ogden, Utah.

[2] After Violet Madsen's death, he married Mrs. Sarah Frances Nelson Malmborg who survived him.