Martin Wilford Poulson was born November 21, 1884 in Pleasant Grove, Utah to Niels and Maria Poulson. He served a mission to Sweden from 1904-1906. He married Estelle Mecham on April 24, 1907. He graduated from Brigham Young High School in 1910. He received a Bachelors of Arts degree in 1914. In 1919, he received his Masters degree from the University of Utah. He later conducted graduate work at the University of Chicago, University of California, and Stanford University. Estelle died on 18 August 1935. Poulson then married Jenniev Jorgenson Smith on June 12, 1936; they later divorced. He was a professor of psychology at Brigham Young University from 1910 to 1958; where he served as a chairman of the Psychology Department for many years. In addition, he was the president of the Utah Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters, the president of the Utah Library Association, and a member of the American Psychology Association. Throughout his life, he collected Mormon books and literature. M. Wilford Poulson died on January 26, 1969 in Salt Lake City, Utah.