[5] In Fort Worth, Poll studied at Texas Christian University (TCU), completing a bachelor's degree in history in 1938.
After uncertainty over whether his BYU contract would be renewed, Poll resigned to take a position as vice president of Western Illinois University (WIU) in 1969.
[2] From 1978-1993, Poll and his wife taught reading and writing skills in adult education classes offered by the LDS Church.
His religious approach was influenced by his studies at TCU, where he examined and rejected creationism, scriptural literalism, and prophetic infallibility.
"[1] In 1963,[2] Poll prepared a paper called "What the Church Means to People Like Me", which he delivered in the Palo Alto Ward sacrament meeting in August 1967 and published in Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought.
[1] In a 1971 General Conference address, church apostle Harold B. Lee alluded to and denounced Poll's ideas, saying: If there is any one thing most needed in this time of tumult and frustration, ... it is an "iron rod" as a safe guide along the straight path on the way to eternal life, ...
Wouldn't it be a great thing if all who are well schooled in secular learning could hold fast to the "iron rod," or the word of God, ... ?
Lee then quoted John A. Widtsoe's definition of "a liberal in the church" as one who has broken with the fundamental principles, does not believe in its basic concepts, and sets out to reform it by changing its foundations.
He welcomes all new improvements and calls for more… He insists that every new invention must be used for human welfare, with full respect to civil and moral law.
He may refuse to continue the church architecture of the past, but will insist that the ancient truths of the Gospel be taught... forever seeking, under changing conditions, to make the doctrine of human brotherhood more effective in behalf of the needy... the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is pre-eminently liberal… It declares that men "live and move and have their being" under the law of progress.