After receiving his B.A. at the University of Utah in 1927, Daryl Chase became an LDS seminary teacher in Preston, Idaho. There, he became acquainted with Joseph F. Merrill, Commissioner of Church Schools for Idaho. Merrill lent Chase the money to enroll in the graduate school at the University of Chicago. Chase continued his studies at Chicago throughout the 1930s, eventually earning both an MA and a doctoral degree.

Chase's successful directorship at the Logan LDS Institute of Religion brought him to the attention of President Franklin S. Harris, who urged that he accept the position of Dean of Students in 1946. After six years as Dean of Students, the Utah State Board of Trustees appointed him President of the Branch Agricultural College in Cedar City (Southern Utah University). From here, he returned to USU as the institution's tenth president.

During his fourteen years as president the institution distinguished itself in research, international programs and a spirit of positive faculty/student relations. Between 1954 and 1968 the University attracted a 400% increase in research appropriations, the student enrollment increased over 250%, and the international student population burgeoned with an 800% increase. In 1968 the institution awarded 400 doctoral degrees, compared with only 7 when Chase became president in 1954. Additionally, the faculty at the college grew from 370 in 1954 to 600 in 1968 and of these 283 held terminal degrees, compared with only 101 during the earlier period. A tremendous expansion of the physical campus also occurred during the Chase years. Valued at $8.1 million when President Chase became president, the campus boasted of having a combined worth of almost $50 million in buildings with another 11.5 million under construction when he retired in 1968. In 1957, the State Legislature awarded Chase's effort and institutional success by changing the school from the Utah State Agricultural College to Utah State University of Agriculture and Applied Science. Chase died in 1984 in Logan.