Board of Trustees, 1939 to 1958. Adam S. Bennion (December 2, 1886 - February 11, 1958), was a leader in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He was ordained to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles on April 9, 1953 to replace the vacancy caused by Elder John A. Widtsoe's death. Elder Bennion died in 1958 at Salt Lake City, Utah. He served less than five years in the quorum, but he was esteemed highly by his brethren. Upon his passing, Hugh B. Brown was called to the quorum. ~ ~ ~ ~ Born in Taylorsville, Utah, Adam S. Bennion was the son of Joseph B. Bennion and Mary Ann Sharp Bennion. Adam's father died May 25, 1888, leaving Mary Ann to raise and provide for the family of seven children, three of whom died in early childhood, leaving Adam and his three surviving sisters. Adam attended grade school in Taylorsville and enrolled at the University of Utah where he completed his high school years and graduated from the University in 1908 with honors. He became an English teacher at LDS High School in Salt Lake City. After teaching for three years, he was determined to further his education. He married a former student, Minerva Richards Young, in the fall of 1911. Minerva's father, Brigadier General Richard W. Young, was a grandson of Brigham Young. Adam and his new bride spent one year at Columbia University in New York where he obtained his master's degree. They returned to Salt Lake City in 1912, where he became an English teacher at Granite High School. In 1912, the LDS Church started a religion class at Granite High School, called "Seminary." Dr. Bennion was deeply involved in the first seminary of the Church, and the resulting growth of this program. In 1913, he became the principal of Granite High School. He attended the University of Chicago during the summer of 1914, studying school administration. In 1915, he became a member of the General Board of the Deseret Sunday School, set apart by David O. McKay. He then accepted a position as an assistant professor of English at the University of Utah. After two years at the University, he was called by Church President Heber J. Grant to be the superintendent of LDS Church Schools in 1919. This did not include Brigham Young University, but did include all other church schools, which were many in number. During 1921-1923, he received a two-year leave of absence and obtained his doctorate degree at the University of California. In 1927, he left the Church education program and became associated with the Utah Power & Light Company as Director of Personnel. In 1934, Dr. Bennion was promoted to assistant to the president of UP&L. In 1944, Dr. Bennion was encouraged by many Republican and civic leaders to run for the US Senate. He finally and somewhat reluctantly did so. He resigned from the power company and campaigned vigorously, but with World War II winding down, and faced by the very powerful national Democrat leadership, Bennion was defeated by the Democrat incumbent, Senator Elbert D. Thomas. Other opportunities were offered to him, but he returned the UP&L Company as an executive vice president. In 1947, he became a director of the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad, a position he held until his death in 1958. In April of 1953, Adam Samuel Bennion was called by Church President David O. McKay to serve in the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. Bennion wrote several books focused on teaching religion. Unfortunately, this mission as an Apostle last only about five years. He died because of a cerebral hemorrhage on February 11, 1958.

Board of Trustees, 1950 to 1994. Ezra Taft Benson (1899-1994), Thirteenth President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is noted for his extensive Church service and his distinguished career in government. He served forty-two years as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and was U.S. Secretary of Agriculture for eight years in the administration of President Dwight D. Eisenhower. As President of the Church, he repeatedly bore witness that the Book of Mormon is the major instrument to bring the members of the Church and the world to Christ, and he admonished the Saints to strengthen their families and to preserve their God-given freedoms. President Benson was born August 4, 1899, in the small rural community of Whitney, Idaho, the oldest of eleven children born to George Taft Benson, Jr., and Sarah Dunkley. He was named after his great-grandfather, Ezra T. (Taft) Benson, an apostle, who entered the Salt Lake Valley with the first Mormon pioneer company in July 1847. The pioneer Ezra T. was the son of John Benson, Jr., and Chloe Taft of Mendon, Massachusetts. John Benson, Sr., was an officer during the American Revolution. Ezra Taft Benson was reared on the family farm in Whitney, driving a team of horses at the age of five, milking cows, and thinning sugar beets. He entered grade school at the age of eight. "Be as careful of the books you read as of the company you keep" was the counsel that governed his reading habits. Increased responsibility was thrust on him as a youth when his father was called as a missionary to the Northern States Mission, leaving behind his wife and seven children; the eighth was born while he was in the mission field. A spirit of missionary work enveloped the home, and all eleven children eventually served at least one full-time mission. In 1914, Ezra entered the Church-sponsored Oneida Academy in Preston, Idaho, graduating in 1918. That year as Scoutmaster, he led his Scouts into choral competition and won the Cache Valley chorus championship. Also during that year he enlisted in the military service just before the close of World War I. As a young man, he developed a love for the land and for the Lord, two fundamental influences in his ensuing life. He felt that the basic ingredient for successful farming was intelligent, hard work. To increase his agricultural skills, he took correspondence courses and began attending the Utah State Agricultural College (now Utah State University). He accepted a mission call to England in 1921, where he served as Newcastle Conference clerk, Sunderland Branch president, and president of the Newcastle Conference, which included all of northern England. Upon his return, he soon enrolled at Brigham Young University, where he was president of the Agriculture Club and Men's Glee Club and was named the most popular man on campus. He graduated with honors, majoring in animal husbandry with a minor in agronomy. He married Flora Smith Amussen in the Salt Lake Temple on September 10, 1926. She was the youngest child of Carl Christian Amussen, a Danish convert who crossed the plains and became a prominent Utah jeweler, and Barbara McIsaac Smith. Flora attended Utah State Agricultural College, where she served as vice-president of the student body, took the lead in a Shakespearean play, and won the women's singles tennis championship. She served a mission in the Hawaiian Islands. They became the parents of six children—Reed, Mark, Barbara, Beverly, Bonnie, and Beth. Benson received a research scholarship to Iowa State College, where he obtained his master's degree in agricultural economics on June 13, 1927. He returned to the family farm, which he and his brother Orval had purchased from their father, and on March 4, 1929, was appointed Franklin County agricultural agent. He helped farmers solve their problems by setting up demonstration farms, inviting in specialists, teaching crop rotation, and introducing improved varieties of grains. In 1930, he was promoted to agricultural economist and marketing specialist for the University of Idaho, with offices in the state capitol in Boise. Traveling throughout Idaho, he encouraged farmers to work cooperatively in producing and marketing their goods. For five years, he served as the executive secretary of the Idaho Cooperative Council. He took a leave in 1936 for additional graduate study, attending the University of California in Berkeley on a fellowship awarded by the Giannini Foundation for Agricultural Economics. Soon after his return to Boise, he was called by the Church in November 1938 to serve as stake president. In April 1939, he became executive secretary of the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives at its headquarters in Washington, D.C. The council represented some 4,000 cooperative purchasing and marketing organizations involving almost 1.6 million farmers. Ezra Benson represented cooperatives before committees of Congress and served on a four-man national agriculture advisory committee to President Franklin D. Roosevelt during World War II. On June 30, 1940, the Church called him as the first president of the Washington, D.C., stake, and on July 26, 1943, he was called to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. He was sustained in that position at the October general conference and was ordained an apostle by President Heber J. Grant on October 7, 1943. In December 1945, following the devastation of World War II, President George Albert Smith called Elder Benson to be the European mission president. His faith in the Lord, administrative skills, and experience in dealing with government helped him accomplish the four-point charge given to him by the First Presidency: "First, to attend to the spiritual affairs of the Church in Europe; second, to work to make available food, clothing, and bedding to our suffering Saints in all parts of Europe; third, to direct the reorganization of the missions of Europe; and, fourth, to prepare for the return of missionaries to those countries". He was among the first American civilians to administer relief in many of the devastated areas. During his first five months in Europe, he visited over one hundred cities in thirteen countries. Within ten months, he completed his mission, having distributed ninety-two boxcar loads of food, clothing, bedding, and medical supplies; reopened missions with new mission presidents and full-time missionaries; and given the Latter-day Saints in Europe a renewed spirit of hope. In 1952, following the counsel of President David O. McKay, Ezra Taft Benson accepted the Cabinet position of Secretary of Agriculture in the Eisenhower administration. His selection was greeted with widespread approval. In his "General Statement on Agricultural Policy," he said, "The supreme test of any government policy, agricultural or other, should be 'How will it affect the character, morale, and well-being of our people?' …A completely planned and subsidized economy weakens initiative, discourages industry, destroys character, and demoralizes the people" (Benson, 1962, p. 602). He assumed office when farm income was declining and wartime legislation was piling up surpluses in government warehouses, inviting increased government controls of agriculture. He worked to reverse that course, winning significant legislative victories in spite of intense political opposition. He became known for his integrity, and friend and foe alike acknowledged that he was a man of religious principles who stood by his convictions despite political pressures. He traveled hundreds of thousands of miles, carrying his farm message throughout the nation and the world, and aggressively encouraged consumption of U.S. farm products. He authored three books, Farmers at the Crossroads (1956), Freedom to Farm (1960), and Crossfire: The Eight Years with Eisenhower (1962). He served eight years in the Cabinet, meeting with heads of state and agriculture leaders and farmers in over forty nations. He had discussions with such leaders as Chiang Kai-shek, Nehru, Khrushchev, King Hussein, and David Ben-Gurion. During this time, his example and activities brought positive and widespread attention to the Church. President David O. McKay said that Secretary Benson's work in the Cabinet would "stand for all time as a credit to the Church and the nation". With the encouragement of President David O. McKay, a major thrust of Elder Benson's many Church and civic addresses pertained to freedom and the threats to it. The substance of those messages is found in his books The Red Carpet (1962), Title of Liberty (1964), and An Enemy Hath Done This (1969). In Church general conference in April 1965, he warned, "To have been on the wrong side of the freedom issue during the war in heaven meant eternal damnation. How then can Latter-day Saints expect to be on the wrong side in this life and escape the eternal consequences?" President Benson's international stature helped to facilitate the acceptance and growth of the Church throughout the world. He dedicated several nations to the preaching of the gospel, established the first stakes in many countries, and supervised various areas of the world. He served as chairman of Quorum of the Twelve committees and sat on numerous boards. In December 1973, Ezra Taft Benson became president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. His executive abilities were again demonstrated in this calling. A great spirit of unity was manifest, and he measured proposed policies or procedures by the yardstick "What is best for the kingdom?" (Petersen, p. 3). Brigham Young University honored him by establishing the Ezra Taft Benson Agriculture and Food Institute in 1975 to help relieve world food problems and raise the quality of global life through improved nutrition and enlightened agriculture practices. Many national and international citations and awards, including a number of honorary doctorate degrees, were bestowed on him. From the Boy Scouts of America he received the Silver Beaver, Silver Antelope, and Silver Buffalo; he served on their National Executive Board. On April 1, 1989, he was presented world Scouting's highest award, the Bronze Wolf. During his ninetieth birthday celebration, the President of the United States conferred upon him the Presidential Citizens Medal, naming him "one of the most distinguished Americans of his time". Upon the death of President Spencer W. Kimball, Ezra Taft Benson became President of the Church on November 10, 1985, at the age of eighty-six. At that time he delivered a statement reiterating the mission of the Church—to preach the gospel, perfect the Saints, and redeem the dead—and reaffirming that the Church is led by the Lord Jesus Christ. He selected as his counselors in the First Presidency Gordon B. Hinckley and Thomas S. Monson. The new First Presidency soon issued a special invitation to those members who had ceased activity or become critical of the Church to "come back" (Church News, Dec. 22, 1985, p. 3), and they opened the temples to worthy members married to unendowed spouses. He was President during the Bicentennial of the U.S. Constitution and, as one of its greatest defenders, he delivered messages honoring this divine document and its inspired framers (The Constitution: A Heavenly Banner, Salt Lake City, 1986). During his presidency, new temples were announced and several were dedicated, and missionary work expanded around the world with special opportunities being afforded, particularly in Eastern Europe, in countries previously closed. For nearly fifty years his thousands of speeches stressed mankind's three great loyalties—loyalty to God, loyalty to family, and loyalty to country.

Board of Trustees, 1939 to 1953. Albert Ernest Bowen (1875 - 1953) was a member of the Council of Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He was born October 31, 1875 at Henderson Creek, Idaho. He was baptized in 1883. He married Aletha Reeder 1902. Served mission to Switzerland and Germany. Earned Doctor of Jurisprudence Degree 1911. Married Emma Lucy Gates 1916 after passing of first wife. He was ordained an apostle on April 14, 1937 after the passing of Alonzo A. Hinckley. He passed away on July 15, 1953 at Salt Lake City, Utah, and was succeeded by Richard L. Evans.

Board of Trustees, Brigham Young Academy, 1875 to 1883. William Bringhurst, a member of the original BYA Board of Trustees, was born on November 8, 1818, in Philadelphia and came to Utah on October 10, 1847, with the John Taylor Company. He was bishop of the Springville Ward, a city councilman, a member of the Territorial Legislature, a director of the Provo Woolen Mills, a merchant, a farmer, and a stockraiser. ~ ~ ~ ~ William H. Bringhurst was born November 8, 1818 in Passyunk, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania. He first married Ann Wollerton Dilworth on March 25, 1845 in Chester County, Pennsylvania. He second married Ellen Wiscombe on September 20, 1875, in Salt Lake City, Utah. He died February 17, 1883 in Springville, Utah. Interment, Springville. His parents: Joseph Bringhurst and Elizabeth Evans Bringhurst. ~ ~ ~ ~ THE LAS VEGAS CONNECTION OF WILLIAM BRINGHURST, BY A.D. HOPKINSLAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL. By 1855, travelers already knew the harshness of the Mojave Desert. They knew that the 52-mile journey from the Muddy River to Las Vegas was best attempted in winter. Yet on June 13, perhaps 15 young men broke camp, filled every keg, bucket and fruit jar with water, cracked their bullwhips and headed southwest on a day one called the hottest he had ever seen. Men and oxen plodded all night, following a trail marked by bones. It was 3 p.m. on the 14th before they reached the good water and grass of Las Vegas. "Their teams and their wagons were pretty well used up," remarked their historian. Even so, some men dumped their other cargo, refilled water barrels, and headed back into the desert to help another party of 15 who were driving weaker teams and started the hard journey 24 hours later. It was June 15 before the last stragglers made it into camp. What drove men into the desert summer was not a matter of life and death, but of eternal life. Once assigned to teach their Mormon faith to the Indians of the Las Vegas Valley, they did not wait on a better season, but left almost at once. None would strive harder to complete the mission than its president, William A. Bringhurst. So committed he became that, when the mission's purpose was changed, he defied even the will of his church's leader, Brigham Young. Born in Philadelphia in 1818, Bringhurst married Ann Dillworth in 1845, and traveled to Utah with the John Taylor Company, arriving in 1847. But for nearly two years, beginning in 1855, the diaries of others paint his efforts to colonize, civilize and proselytize Las Vegas and its native inhabitants. Las Vegas was targeted for several reasons. The main road through Las Vegas, mislabeled as the "Old Spanish Trail" when John C. Fremont mapped it in 1844, became so important to Utah colonists that it was also called the "Mormon Road." Up that road came cuttings of California fruit trees, destined to bloom in Utah. Mormon converts from abroad landed at Pacific ports and traveled up the road to Utah. As early as 1851 church authorities envisioned a line of settlements, between the ports of the Pacific and Utah's southern counties, to provide travelers with food, fodder, and blacksmith services. The way stations also were to protect travelers and the mails from hostile Indians, and there may have been some hope of finding and exploiting minerals. Some historians have denied any relation between the Las Vegas Mission and the Mormons' fear of military confrontation with the United States. Yet an alliance with desert Indians was clearly on the mind of colonist John Steele, when he wrote: "We can have 1,000 brave warriors on hand in a short time to help quell the eruption that might take place." Brigham Young himself, in a meeting with departing missionaries that spring, said of the Indians "... by and by they will be the Lord's battle ax in good earnest." Ultimately, the differences were settled without war. The missionaries were supposed to teach the Las Vegas Paiutes, who were hunters and gatherers, how to farm. But in the eyes of many, notably Bringhurst, the main purpose was religious. Mormons believed American Indians, or Lamanites, were descendants of the people of ancient Israel, and it was the responsibility of Mormons to convert Lamanites to their religion. Though the missionaries hoped to live peaceably among the Indians, laying out a fort was almost their first step, commenced on June 18, only the second working day after their arrival. Part of this fort still stands at Las Vegas Boulevard and Washington Avenue. The location is three miles from Big Springs, but here Las Vegas Creek flowed down a hillside, allowing for a small water-powered mill. An uprising in central Utah in 1853 prompted Young to advise that forts be built in all new settlements, and as many as 35 were accordingly built by Mormons. The one in Las Vegas was large and well-designed by frontier standards, and those who saw it in its heyday wondered how farmers and missionaries came to build in such a military manner. Research by James Hinds, a Las Vegas military historian, found the probable answer. Steele, the fort's designer, had served in the Mormon Battalion during the Mexican War. The war carried him to Pueblo, in what is now Colorado, where he presumably had the chance to study nearby Bent's Fort, built by traders. Irish born, Steele also had lived in Scotland, where he would have had other opportunities to view fortifications. The main material for the fort was adobe brick, made on the spot. Foundations were stone. Walls were 14 feet high, 2 feet thick for the first 8 feet of height, and a foot thick above that. The fort's east wall doubled as the wall of "mess houses," or dwellings for families or groups of men who shared cooking and housekeeping chores. These were built inside the fort and faced out into the courtyard. Hinds found the messes were two stories high, and suggests the first floor must have been made of dirt and the second of rough wood planks. Wood was used sparingly, for the closest timber lay many miles away in the Spring Mountains. Nails also were in short supply, so rawhide thongs or wooden pegs would have been used to attach the planks to beams. There were holes in the wall for shooting at attackers, and two corners of the fort had bastions, protruding structures from which defenders might fire along the walls. Garden plots and farmland were apportioned to each man, and the fields were fenced with branches of thorny mesquite. The missionaries planted "grain of all sorts" and at first the crops grew well; in July Bringhurst remarked in a letter that the corn grew an inch and one half in 24 hours. But the soil proved too alkaline for many crops. By October, Steele wrote to a friend, "I planted three acres of corn, oats, peas, beans etc., and my oats came up most beautiful; and so did everything else, but ... the saleratus killed it, and I will not have three bushels of corn on it." Relations with the Indians began auspiciously. In July Bringhurst wrote the Deseret News, "Shortly after we arrived here, we assembled all the chiefs, and made an agreement (treaty) with them for permission to make a settlement on their lands. We agreed to treat them well, and they were to observe the same conduct towards us, and with all white men." The mission's recorder, George Washington Bean, had learned the Ute tongue years before. He found the Paiute language different but could make himself understood. Bean wrote that the Indians "helped us grub the land, make adobes, attend the mason and especially to herd the stock." The Paiutes' favorite unit of exchange was the squash, and they didn't expect many for a day's work. In the spring of 1856 the missionaries laid out a farm for the Indians, about a mile and a half north of the mission, plowed it and showed the Indians how to plant it. Trying to teach Paiutes to farm was not culturally hopeless, as some have depicted. Paiutes to the northeast had been farming at least 80 years. The missionaries, however, found they could not grow enough food to feed themselves and all the Paiutes. Colonists estimated at least 1,000 Indians lived in the Las Vegas Valley or near it; there were never more than 103 members of the Las Vegas Mission, and some of those were children too young to work. In the fall of 1856 the mission was 4,000 to 5,000 pounds short of the amount of flour required to sustain it until the next harvest. Bringhurst called upon men skilled with carpenter tools to go to California and work for the flour. That same year, some missionaries reported, a drought also hurt the Paiutes' traditional supplies of wild foods. Thefts became a problem. In July the mission books record, "Brother Bringhurst being informed that the Lamanites had been committing serious depredation upon the grain, melons, etc., by coming into the fields in the night time, he called up chief Joshua (Patsearump, a Paiute leader who had been baptized and thus had a Christian name also) and gave him to understand that such things must be stopped immediately ... Joshua pleaded his inability to govern his people when they were hungry, but his intentions were always good and friendly toward the brethren." In early August, at the Paiutes' request, Mormon riflemen brought their better weapons and joined them in a hunt, but no game was found. The mission log records: "Sunday, Aug. 17. At night the brethren were watching in the corn field and caught an Indian boy stealing corn. Several others were with him, but ran away before they could be gotten hold of. President Bringhurst ordered the boy chained up in the fort all night to see if it would have a salutary influence upon him and the others." "Monday, Aug. 18. In the morning the chief and some of the Indians came into camp, feeling perfectly friendly. They said it was alright to punish the boy, although some wanted to retaliate upon the cattle and horses, but the chief talked peace, saying that if they did not want to be tied up they must quit stealing. The boy was released early in the morning and sent to his camp." An ox was driven off but recovered. A calf was killed. Tensions grew among the missionaries themselves. Steele wrote, "Things began to change. The same old-fashioned sermons was preached and arses threatened to be kicked if men did not do what was wanted of them ... (I thought) that more mild treatment would do just as well." The discovery of lead nearby, at what is now called Mount Potosi, caused problems within the mission. In May 1856, Nathaniel V. Jones arrived in Las Vegas bearing orders from Young himself, and claiming authority to take men from the mission to work the mines. Steele related, "Jones presented his letter of instruction to President Bringhurst and there was a great storm between them calling each other anything but gentlemen." Bringhurst refused to accept Jones' authority. When food grew short, Bringhurst refused supplies to Jones' mining party, encamped southwest of Las Vegas at the location which would later be named Potosi. He refused to send the mission blacksmith to the mines. Jones returned to Salt Lake City to buy suitable material for an ore smelter. Returning Dec. 4, he bore a letter from Young, notifying Bringhurst that he had been "dropped from the mission and disfellowshipped from the Church." One week later, Bringhurst started for California. Getting the lead out proved to be even more challenging than harvesting a corn crop. The ore proved complex, and could not be profitably mined by smelting alone, yet there was insufficient water at the site for other processes. In January 1857, the Jones group abandoned the mines. The Las Vegas missionaries were allowed to leave the mission in March, though a few remained voluntarily. The final blow to the Mormon settlement came in the fall of 1858, when Indians who had not yet accepted the Mormons' teachings swept down from the mountains and stole the harvest from the fields. At a special conference in Santa Clara, Utah, church officials officially abandoned the Las Vegas Mission. Yet the mission was not such a failure as it might appear. The local Indians' relations with whites improved immediately upon the Mormons' arrival, and remained better, after their departure, than in much of the desert West. Las Vegas Paiutes retained their identity, and also part of their original home territory near the fort. They regained more of it in recent years, the Snow Mountain reservation. The Mormons' buildings and irrigation trenches, though unable to support 100 missionaries, did support ranchers who took them over later. The Mormon Fort was the seed of European-style civilization in Las Vegas. Bringhurst would soon regain good standing in the church. He served several years as bishop of the ward at Springville, Utah, and Young selected him as one the six founding trustees for Brigham Young Academy (now Brigham Young University). He died in February 1883. Standard directories of Utah pioneers, and a biography provided by the BYU public information office, do not mention his service at the Las Vegas Mission, though it consumed nearly two years of his life. [Las Vegas Review-Journal, February 7, 1999] Source.

Board of Trustees, 1958 to 1975. Hugh B. Brown. One of the most popular twentieth-century Mormon leaders, Hugh B. (for Brown) Brown was born in Salt Lake City on 24 October 1883, to Homer Manley and Lydia Jane Brown. He was fifteen when his family moved to southern Alberta. There he made a home for Zina Young Card, whom he married in 1908, and there the first six of their eight children were born. [One daughter, Carol Brown Bunker Sonntag, graduated from Brigham Young High School in 1947.] He went to England as a missionary, serving from 1904 to 1906, and briefly returned in 1917 as a major in charge of Canadian replacements in World War I. These experiences produced two classic stories, "Father, Are You There?" and "The Current Bush." Brown's Canadian vocations included stints as cowboy, farmer, soldier, businessman, lawyer, and head of the LDS Lethbridge Stake. Moving to Salt Lake City in 1927, Brown quickly became a successful lawyer and president of the LDS Granite Stake. He also formed a lifelong allegiance with the Democratic party, which led to an unsuccessful run for political office and an unpleasant term of service as first chairman of Utah's Liquor Control Commission from 1935 to 1937. A call to head the LDS British Mission came soon, the first of many full-time church positions which brought him admiration and influence, but never the affluence for which he also yearned. As LDS Servicemen's Coordinator from 1941 to 1945, he traveled extensively in North America and western Europe as de facto chief chaplain for the thousands of Mormons in American, British, and Commonwealth uniforms; anecdotes born of this experience punctuated his sermons and writings thereafter. Early in 1944 he was given an additional appointment to reactivate the British Mission. Intervals as a professor of religion at Brigham Young University (1946-1949), and with an Alberta oil prospecting firm (1949-1953), preceded his call, at age seventy, to be one of the LDS General Authorities - an Assistant to the Council of the Twelve. Thereafter he became a member of the Council of the Twelve in 1958, and Counselor to and then Second Counselor in the First Presidency in 1961, becoming First Counselor in 1963. His record of earlier service, his effective writings and sermons, and his long friendship and ideological affinity with LDS Church President David O. McKay probably accounted for his rapid advancement in the church hierarchy. McKay's failing health and his own policy differences within the church leadership later weakened Brown's influence, though his popularity remained great. Following McKay's death in 1970, he served in the Council of the Twelve until his own death, two years after Zina's, on 2 December 1975.

Board of Trustees, 1939 to 1947. Charles Albert Callis (1865–1947) was a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Born in Dublin, Ireland, Callis was ordained a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1933 by Heber J. Grant. Elder Callis died in 1947.

Board of Trustees, Brigham Young Academy, 1895 to 1901. Third President of the Board of Trustees, 1897 to 1901. Born 1827 Liverpool, England. Baptized about 1840. Practiced plural marriage; five wives. Ordained Apostle, and sustained to the Quorum of the Twelve 1860. Counselor to Brigham Young 1873. Assistant Counselor to Brigham Young 1874-77. First Counselor to John Taylor 1880-1887 First Counselor to Wilford Woodruff 1889-1898. First Counselor to Lorenzo Snow 1898-1901. Died 1901 in Monterey, California. President George Q. Cannon was born in 1827 in Liverpool, England the eldest child of George Cannon and his wife Ann Quayle Cannon. His father became aware of the Gospel when his sister, Leonora Cannon, with her husband and future president of the church, John Taylor, was baptized by Parley P. Pratt in 1836. Four years later, John Taylor, while on a mission in England, converted the Cannon family George Q. was thirteen and he was baptized at the same time. Two years later The family left Liverpool and sailed for America. George's mother died during their voyage, leaving her six children and a widowed husband to reach Nauvoo, Illinois, without her. Arriving in Nauvoo in the spring of 1843, George lived with John and Leonara Taylor's family. Soon thereafter, George began work as a printer's apprentice for his uncle in the publishing office of the Times and Seasons and the Nauvoo Neighbor. George watched over the affairs of the printing business while his uncle recovered from wounds he received at the Carthage Jail when the Prophet and Hyrum were murdered. Two years after the family's arrival in Nauvoo, George's father also died. George Cannon accompanied the Taylors to Winter Quarters in 1846, and arrived in the Salt Lake Valley in October 1847. In 1849 he served a Mission to California and from there to the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii) where he served for four years. Almost immediately upon his return to Utah, he was sent out again, this time he was to assist Parley P. Pratt in a newspaper venture. Arriving in California, he found Elder Pratt preparing to depart. Elder Pratt took the fortuitous meeting as an opportunity to set Elder Cannon apart as President of the California and Oregon Mission. While thus engaged Elder Cannon published the first edition of the Book of Mormon in the Hawaiian language. He returned to Utah on hearing of preparations for war in Utah. He was commissioned a lieutenant general in the Nauvoo Legion. With the successful conclusion of the Utah War he was called to preside over the Eastern States Mission. At the murder of Elder Parley P. Pratt, he was ordained an Apostle by President Brigham Young, entering the Quorum of the Twelve at the age of 33. A call to preside over the European Mission was cut short by his election to Congress and the need for pressing Utah's bid for statehood. He sailed immediately for the States and went to Washington, DC. At the adjournment of the 1862 congressional session, he returned to Europe for two years to continue his assignment as presiding authority. The autumn of his life was tarnished by Federal persecution of Church members who practiced plural marriage. George Q. and his five wives were harassed by federal agents and in 1885 they were forced to go into seclusion. In 1888 he surrendered himself to authorities and served six months for cohabitation. In 1873, President Young called him to serve as a Counselor to the First Presidency. From that time until the time of his death, he served in the First Presidency, serving as Counselor to an unprecedented four Presidents of the Church; Brigham Young, John Taylor , Wilford Woodruff and Lorenzo Snow. All this time he was getting seniority in the Quorum of the Twelve and was (next to President Snow, of course) the senior Apostle at the time of his death. George Q. Cannon, a counselor in the First Presidency of the Church, became president of the Brigham Young Academy Board of Trustees in 1897 and served until 1901, when Church President Lorenzo Snow became Board President. President Cannon had favored the founding of the Academy and was a firm spiritual and financial friend of the school from its beginning. BYU named Cannon Center in the Helaman Halls in his honor.

Board of Trustees, Brigham Young Academy, 1886 to 1887. Born 1857 San Francisco, California. Baptized 1865. Ordained Elder 1873. Married Elizabeth Anne "Annie" Wells 1880; twelve children Mission to Europe; thence to Swiss and German Mission 1881-1884. President of Swiss and German Mission 1883-1884. Second Counselor in Presiding Bishopric 1884-1886. Excommunicated 1886. Rebaptized 1888. Died 1931 Salt Lake City, Utah. The following biographical sketch is adapted from the LDS Biographical Encyclopedia, compiled and edited by Andrew Jenson, Volume 1, page 243 and from other sources. John Quayle Cannon, second counselor to [Presiding] Bishop William. B. Preston from 1884 to 1886, was the eldest son of George Q. Cannon and Elizabeth Hoagland, and was born in San Francisco, Cal., April 19, 1857, his father at that time being on a mission to California, accompanied by his wife. They returned the following winter to Salt Lake City, where John Q. was baptized by his father, April 19, 1865. In July, 1873, he was ordained to the office of an Elder. John learned the trade of a printer at the Deseret News Office. He was married to Elizabeth Anne "Annie" Wells, daughter of Daniel H. Wells, in 1880. They would eventually have twelve children but before that he was called to take a mission to Europe. He left home Aug. 9, 1881, and arrived in Liverpool, England, on the 27th. After laboring in the London conference for about seven months, he was called to the Swiss and German Mission, where he labored a short time in the North German conference; afterwards he was secretary of the mission, with headquarters at Berne, Switzerland, and finally succeeded P. F. Goss in the presidency of the mission. He occupied the latter position for about ten months. Before returning home he visited the principal cities on the European Continent, having been joined by his wife, in whose company he returned home June 25, 1884, after an absence of about three years. At October conference Elder Cannon was appointed to act as second counselor to Presiding Bishop Wm. B. Preston, a position which he occupied until September, 1886. He was released from the presiding Bishopric and excommunicated from the Church September 5, 1896, the result of an unwillingness to abide the constraints of the Manifesto and the moral codes of the Gospel. It is unclear whether this involved an unauthorized plural marriage or immorality outside the bands of marriage. He, however, manifested a spirit of repentance and was rebaptized two years later on May 6, 1888. From 1889 to 1892 he was editor of the Ogden Standard, and from October, 1892, until the breaking out of the war with Spain, April 1898, he was editor in chief of the Deseret News. He returned to that position after the war and worked with the Deseret News until his death. The Salt Lake Tribune reported an interesting incident obstensibly concerning the rivalry between the Tribune and the News but possibly relating to the matter over which Cannon was eventually excommunicated. "John Q. Cannon, an editor at the News, took the conflict to the streets when he confronted Tribune reporter Joseph Lippman on the corner of State and First South to demand a retraction for a 'vile' story. 'I want you to get right down here on your knees and apologize for the lie you published about me,' Cannon sputtered. When Lippman refused, Cannon sent his rival 'flying through the air as if a cannonball had struck him' and then beat Lippman with a whip. Cannon pleaded guilty to the assault and paid a small fine, but went on to serve as executive editor of the News off-and-on until his death in 1931." Having been since 1894 prominently connected with military affairs in Utah, he enlisted as a volunteer for the war, and in May, 1898 was commissioned lieutenant-colonel of cavalry, serving as such in Florida until mustered out at the close of hostilities. Brother Cannon died Jan. 14, 1931, in Salt Lake City. (See Bio. Ency., Vol. 1, p. 243.)

Board of Trustees, 1932 to 1939. Sylvester Quayle Cannon was born June 10, 1877, in Salt Lake City, Utah, a son of George Q. Cannon and Elizabeth Hoagland. He was the youngest of eleven children born to this couple. When an infant he was taken by his parents to Washington, D. C., where his father was in Congress as a delegate from Utah. His childhood was spent on the Cannon Farm southwest of Salt Lake City, where he attended a private school maintained by his father. From 1889 to 1892 he attended the Latter-day Saints College, and, having qualified in stenography, he accompanied his father as secretary on a trip to the Eastern States and England. In 1894-1895 he pursued special studies at the University of Utah. Prior to his first mission, in 1899, Elder Cannon graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Science in Mining Engineering after pursuing a four-year course at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology at Boston. He was baptized June 10, 1885, by his father, who also ordained him a Seventy, Sept. 1, 1899. On the latter date he was set apart for his first mission to the Netherlands and arrived in Rotterdam Sept. 28, 1899. Having studied French and German extensively, he was, in three months, placed in charge of the Seraing-Ougree Branch, Belgium. He labored in the Liege conference till August, 1900, when he was appointed to succeed mission president Alfred L. Fartell, requiring that he learn the Dutch language. In February, 1902, he was called by President Francis M. Lyman to visit with him the Turkish Mission as "guide and interpreter". On that three-months journey he visited Egypt, Palestine, Syria, Turkey, Greece, Italy and France and prepared a series of articles in reference to the trip for the "Millennial Star." On Oct. 8, of the same year, he was succeeded in the mission presidency by his brother, Willard T. Cannon. After an absence of three years, Elder Cannon returned home and was engaged professionally by the State of Utah in a survey of irrigated lands and water from the Weber River. In March, 1904, at the organization of the Pioneer Stake, he was appointed first counselor in the stake presidency. On June 15, 1904, he married Winnifred Saville in the Salt Lake Temple. Four sons and three daughters were born of this union. On May 19, 1907, he arrived in Rotterdam for a second mission, accompanied by his wife and two children, Julian and Elinor. This time Elder Cannon succeeded Alex Nibley as president of the mission. He was also assigned to supervise the publication of the Doctrine and Covenants in the Dutch language. He also published a new and improved edition of the Book of Mormon in the Netherlands, and new editions of the French and Dutch hymn books, with many additions and improvements. He presided over the Pioneer Stake in 1917-1925, and on June 4, 1925, was chosen to succeed Charles W. Nibley as Presiding Bishop of the Church, being set apart and ordained by President Heber J. Grant. As Presiding Bishop he had general supervision of the following activities: Presidency of the Aaronic Priesthood, the temporal affairs of the various wards with the ward bishoprics; receiving and accounting for the tithes, offerings, and other donations; preparation of all financial and statistical reports; the Church relief work and the design and construction of all Church buildings. In 1930-1931 he was appointed chairman of the Governor's State Flood Commission and in 1931-32 he acted as chairman of the State Advisory Council for Unemployment. Elder Cannon served as Presiding Bishop until 1938. On April 6, 1938 he was sustained as an Associate to the Council of the Twelve Apostles and was ordained an Apostle eight days later on April 14 by President Heber J. Grant. He served as an Associate to the Twelve until October 6, 1939 when he was sustained as a member of that quorum, succeeding Elder Melvin J. Ballard, who had died. Elder Cannon served with the Twelve until his own death May 29, 1943 at Salt Lake City, Utah at the age of sixty-five.

Zina Young Williams Card -- See Zina YOUNG.

Board of Trustees, 1939 to 1961. Joshua Reuben Clark, Jr., was born on September 1, 1871, in the small farming town of Grantsville, a Mormon settlement thirty-five miles southwest of Salt Lake City. Although he did not begin his formal education until he was ten years old, young Reuben had been tutored at home by his mother and had developed a love for learning that lasted his entire life. He had not been able to attend high school, but by 1898, after four years at the University of Utah, Reuben completed all the requirements for both his high school diploma and his bachelor of science degree. He graduated first in his class — in addition to having served as student body president, managing editor of the student newspaper, and secretary to Dr. James E. Talmage, who was president of the university. On September 14, 1898 , J. Reuben Clark married Luacine Annetta Savage in the Salt Lake Temple , with Dr. Talmage officiating at the ceremony. For the next four years he held various positions around the state as a teacher and administrator on both high school and college levels. In 1903, the Clarks, including two small children (two more were to follow), moved to New York City, where Reuben entered law school at Columbia University. His first year's work was of such high quality that he was among the three second-year students elected to the editorial board of the Columbia Law Review. By the end of his second year he was admitted to the New York Bar. He received an LL.B. degree in 1906. Three months after graduating from law school, J. Reuben Clark, Jr., was appointed assistant solicitor of the State Department by Elihu Root, secretary of state under President Theodore Roosevelt. Shortly thereafter he was also named an assistant professor of law at George Washington University, where he taught until 1908. In July 1910, under the administration of President William Howard Taft, Mr. Clark was appointed solicitor of the State Department. As part of his responsibilities he represented the United States in a dispute with Chile. The king of England, serving as arbitrator, ruled in favor of the United States and granted one of the largest international awards up to that time — nearly a million dollars. Also during his solicitorship, Clark published his classic “Memorandum on the Right to Protect Citizens in Foreign Countries by Landing Forces.” Secretary of State Philander C. Knox declared of Mr. Clark: “I am doing him but justice in saying that for natural ability, integrity, loyalty, and industry, I have not in a long professional and public service met his superior and rarely his equal.” J. Reuben Clark, Jr., left the State Department in 1913 to open law offices in Washington, D.C., specializing in municipal and international law. His clients included the Japanese Embassy, Philander C. Knox, the Cuban Legation, the Guatemalan Ministry, J.P. Morgan & Company, and the Equitable Life Assurance Society. During World War I, Mr. Clark received a commission as major in the Judge Advocate General's Officers' Reserve Corps. In this capacity he helped prepare the original Selective Service regulations. He was then assigned on active duty to the U.S. Attorney General's office where he prepared “emergency Legislation and War Powers of the President.” In recognition of his meritorious service, he was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal. By President Coolidge's appointment, Mr. Clark became the Under Secretary of State in 1928. During this service he published the “Clark Memorandum on the Monroe Doctrine,” praised by critics as a “monument of erudition” and a “masterly treatise.” The BYU Law Society's semiannual publication takes its name from this famous work. On October 3, 1939 , J. Reuben Clark, Jr., was named U.S. Ambassador to Mexico. After his resignation two and a half years later, Mr. Clark's diplomatic efforts were praised by President Herbert Hoover, who said, “Never have our relations been lifted to such a high point of confidence and cooperation.” In 1933, at age sixty-two, Mr. Clark's lifelong devotion to the Church culminated in a new calling — counselor to President Heber J. Grant of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. As a member of the First Presidency, President Clark was a leading supporter of the Church welfare plan. He also helped put the finances of the Church on a budget plan. He was an inspirational leader and spoke forcefully on topics including freedom, the court, the inspired Constitution, work, integrity, and chastity. An avid student of the life and teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ, he authored many scholarly books on gospel topics. In addition to his Church duties, J. Reuben Clark, Jr., continued to share his professional expertise as a member of corporate boards; government, political, and private committees; and academic journal and educational boards. He also bought and maintained a farm in Grantsville, his boyhood home. After over sixty years of distinguished service to God and his fellowman, President Clark died October 6, 1961, in Salt Lake City. The Clarks were the parents of three daughters, Louise, Luacine, and Marianne, and one son, Joshua Reuben Clark III.

Board of Trustees, 1939 to 1944. Rudger Clawson was born March 12, 1857 in Salt Lake City, Utah to Hiram Bradley Clawson and Margaret Gay Judd. Raised as a member of the Church, he was called to several leadership positions, most notable of which were as an Apostle on October 10, 1898, Second Counselor to Lorenzo Snow October 6, 1901, and President of the Twelve beginning March 17, 1921. Meanwhile he found time to marry three times and father eleven children. He first married Martha Ann Dinwoody 1882; later practiced plural marriage; eleven children. Rudger Clawson was the first member of the Church to be prosecuted under the infamous Edmund's Law. His jury was composed of twelve non-Mormons, although Utah at the time was more than nine-to-one Latter-day Saint. Lydia Spencer, another one of his wives, refused to be sworn and was herself committed to the penitentiary in an attempt to force her to testify. Ultimately Rudger was convicted in an unconstitutional ex-post facto application of the law. As a result of his conviction he was subjected to a fine of $500 and the harsh sentence of three years and six months to a federal penitentiary, for which he had donated $1000 to its construction. He was pardoned in 1887 by President Grover Cleveland, which cut only four months off his sentence. Rudger Clawson died June 21, 1943 in Salt Lake City, Utah, well beloved and respected by throughout the Church.

Board of Trustees, Brigham Young Academy, 1875 to 1897. Harvey H. Cluff, a member of the first Board of Trustees of Brigham Young Academy, was a publisher and a counselor to President Abraham O. Smoot in the Utah Stake Presidency. Like President Smoot, he underwrote much of the expense of the Academy and battled to keep other institutions from pirating its faculty. Born in 1836, he helped to build Provo's New Fort and was a long-time member of the Board of Trustees of Brigham Young Academy. [He is the namesake of Harvey H. Cluff, a prominent lawyer and jurist of Provo, who was born on October 24, 1872.]

Board of Trustees, Brigham Young Academy, 1875 to 1882. See Knowlton, her maiden name.

Board of Trustees, 1950 to 1953. Elder Matthew Cowley was born August 2, 1897 at Preston, Franklin County, Idaho to Matthias Foss Cowley and Abbie Hyde Cowley. As a young man, he served a mission to New Zealand. He developed unusual skill in the Maori language, and was assigned to prepare a translation of the Book of Mormon into that language, correcting errors in an earlier translation. He made changes in approximately 2,500 verses in the original translation, and the second edition appeared in 1917. Elder Cowley was then assigned to translate the Doctrine and Covenants and the Pearl of Great Price, assisted by Wiremu Duncan and Stuart Meha. These translations appeared in 1919. In 1938 he was called to preside over the New Zealand Mission. With the coming of World War II, all American missionaries were called home, but President Matthew and Sister Elva Taylor Cowley chose to remain in New Zealand with their family to supervise the work during the war. It was September 1945 before the Cowleys were released after seven and a half years of service. At the October 1945 general conference, Matthew Cowley was called to be a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and was affectionately called their "Polynesian Apostle" by the Saints of the South Pacific. Elder Cowley told of an interesting experience while serving a Mission in New Zealand. "I was called to a home in a little village in New Zealand one day. There the Relief Society sisters were preparing the body of one of our Saints. They had placed his body in front of the Big House, as they call it, the house where the people came to wail and weep and mourn over the dead, when in rushed the dead man's brother. He said, "Administer to him." And the young natives said, "Why, you shouldn't do that; he's dead." "You do it!" This same old man that I had with me when his niece was so ill was there. The younger native got down on his knees, and he anointed the dead man. Then this great old sage got down and blessed him and commanded him to rise. You should have seen the Relief Society sisters scatter. And he sat up and he said, "Send for the elders; I don't feel very well." . . . Well, we told him he had just been administered to, and he said: "Oh, that was it." He said, "I was dead. I could feel life coming back into me just like a blanket unrolling." Now, he outlived the brother that came in and told us to administer to him. (Devotional address at BYU, February 18, 1953.) Elder Cowley was married July 18, 1922 in the Salt Lake Temple to Elva Taylor, and the couple had three children. He was sustained to the Council of the Twelve Apostles and ordained an Apostle October 11, 1945 by President George Albert Smith. He was well beloved by the Maori people and seems to have had a gentle loving disposition. An eloquent speaker, he compiled and authored Matthew Cowley Speaks, an anthology of many of his talks. He seems to have been of a mind to help sinners rather than ostracize them. He used to tell us that every priesthood quorum in this church ought to be an "Alcoholics Anonymous," because we all have smokers and drinkers who have to have help before they can overcome their habits, and we ought not to be an organization that says to a man who is begging for help, "Well, join the Alcoholics Anonymous." We ought to say, "Now you come to priesthood quorum meetings and we will assign some man who used to have this habit to work with you, and we will give you the help with the power of the priesthood until you can overcome it." Elder Cowley died in 1953 at Los Angeles, California. Interment, Salt Lake City, Utah.

Board of Trustees, Brigham Young Academy, 1891 to 1903. Thomas Robinson Cutler was born June 2, 1844 in Sheffield, Yorkshire, England. He died on April 3, 1922 in Santa Barbara, California. Interment, Lehi, Utah. His parents: John Cutler and Elizabeth Robinson Cutler. He first married Laura Elizabeth Coons on December 26, 1870, in Salt Lake City, Utah. He second married Rhoda Juliet (or Juliette) Barnes on August 10, 1990, in Salt Lake City, Utah. Book about him: Thomas Robinson Cutler, Pioneer, Sugerman, Churchman. By Jesse Robinson Smith, grandson. Washington, D.C.: Eden Hill, 1985. Hardbound. 220 pages. This was written by Cutler's grandson who did considerable research on his grandfather. Cutler was foremost among the men responsible for developing the sugar industry in the Intermountain West. Includes several photos.

B. Y. Academy Collegiate Class of 1898, and Faculty. Leah Endora Dunford. Leah Dunford received the Bachelor of Pedagogy (B.Pd.) degree in Spring of 1898. Source: Students Record of Class Standings B. Y. Academy, Book 1, page 140. ~ ~ ~ ~ Leah Dunford, Domestic Science teacher, 1897-1899. Board of Trustees, 1933 to 1939. Wife of Elder John A. Widtsoe. Author of at least three books: 1. Brigham Young, The Man Of The Hour: Leader Of The Latter Day Saints, by Leah D. Widtsoe, John A. Widtsoe. 2. How To Be Well: A Health Handbook And Cookbook Based On The Newer Knowledge Of Nutrition By A Member Of The Mormon Church, by Leah D. Widtsoe, John A. Widtsoe. 3. Life Story of Brigham Young: Mormon Leader, Founder of Salt Lake City, and Builder of an Empire in the Uncharted Wastes of Western America, by Susa Y. Gates, Leah D. Widtsoe, and Susa (Young) Gates. ~ ~ ~ ~ Leah Eudora Dunford was born February 24, 1874 in Salt Lake City, Utah. Her parents were Alma Bailey Dunford and Susan (Susa) Amelia Young. She married John Andreas Widtsoe on June 1, 1898 in Salt Lake City. She died on June 7, 1965, in Salt Lake City. Interment, SLC, Utah.

Board of Trustees, 1966 to the present. Elder Paul H. Dunn, an emeritus General Authority, died Friday, 9 January 1998, of cardiac arrest in Salt Lake City while recovering from back surgery. He was 73. “He was a longtime teacher and advocate of youth and served as a mission president and General Authority of the Church over a period of 34 years,” said the First Presidency in a released statement. “We extend our sympathy and love to his wife, Jeanne, and family.” Born on 24 April 1924 in Provo, Utah to Joshua Harold Dunn and Geneve Roberts, Elder Dunn earned a bachelor’s degree from Chapman College in 1953 and subsequently received master’s and doctoral degrees in educational administration at the University of Southern California. Elder Dunn married Jeanne Alice Cheverton on 27 February 1946. They became the parents of three daughters. He was named Utah’s Father of the Year in 1972. He began his association with the Church Educational System in 1952 as a seminary teacher in Los Angeles. After serving for several years as a Church institute coordinator in southern California, he was sustained to the First Council of the Seventy on 6 April 1964. Elder Dunn served as president of the New England Mission from 1968 to 1971. He was sustained to the First Quorum of the Seventy 1 October 1976 and served in the Presidency of the Seventy from 1976 to 1980. He received emeritus status 1 October 1989.

Board of Trustees, Brigham Young Academy, 1883 to 1921. Wilson H. Dusenberry. Wilson and his brother, Warren, left California in 1862 and moved to Provo. In the fall of 1869, the two brothers started a school that later became known as the Timpanogos Branch of Deseret University, the predecessor of Brigham Young Academy. By 1891, Wilson had left teaching behind and had become a banker. He served as the cashier of the First National Bank. He served as Secretary - Treasurer of Brigham Young Academy, later was a member of the Board of Trustees of the Academy. Wilson Howard Dusenberry married Margaret Thompson Smoot on 25 Nov 1874. They had 6 children. He was very active in religious, government, and educational affairs in the state. He was mayor of Provo; a member of the state legislature; Utah County Superintendent of Schools; secretary-treasurer of Brigham Young Academy, and later, on the Board of Trustees of Brigham Young Academy; county clerk; cashier of First National Bank of Provo, with A. O. Smoot as President, and later cashier of Utah County Savings Bank; secretary-treasurer of Provo Theatre Company; on the Executive Board of Brigham Young University; and he served as assistant postmaster of Provo until he was 72 years of age. ~~~~~ Wilson H. Dusenberry, early teacher in Provo and member of the first Board of Trustees of Brigham Young Academy. He continued as a member of the Board until 1921. ~ ~ ~ ~ Wilson Howard Dusenberry was born on April 7, 1841 in Perry, Pike County, Illinois. His parents were Mahlon Dusenberry and Aurilla Coray Dusenberry. He first married Harriet Virginia Knowlton Coray Dusenberry on December 4, 1864 in Provo, Utah. He second married Margaret Thompson Smoot Dusenberry on November 25, 1874 in Provo, Utah. He died on March 20, 1925 in Salt Lake City, Utah. Interment, Provo, Utah.

Board of Trustees, 1941 to 1947. Evans, Frank (1873-1950) — of Utah. Born in Coalville, Summit County, Utah, July 26, 1873. Lawyer; member of Utah State Senate, 1915-17. Mormon. Member, Exchange Club; Newcomen Society. Died August 21, 1950. Interment at Coalville City Cemetery, Coalville, Utah. ~ ~ ~ ~ Frank Israel Evans was born on July 26, 1873 in Coalville, Summit County, Utah. He married Priscilla Livingston on December 31, 1902. He died August 21, 1950. His parents: Henry Beck Evans and Anne Cathrine Magdalene Bruun Evans.

Board of Trustees, 1953 to 1971. Richard L.Evans was born March 23, 1906, in Salt Lake City, Utah, the youngest of nine children born to John A. Evans and Florence Neslen. His father died when he was 10 weeks old, leaving a widow with nine children to rear. Richard was baptized May 2, 1914 and received the Aaronic Priesthood as a youth. After high school he entered the L.D.S. Univerity and later the University of Utah but left the halls of academia and a generous scholarship when he filled a mission to Great Britain between 1926-1929. During his mission to Great Britain he acted as associate editor of the "Millennial Star" under James E. Talmage and Dr. John A. Widtsoe. He also served as secretary of the European Mission. His distinctive command of the English language, and effective speaking style were honed in countless street meetings and talks given in the rough and tumble of Hyde Park where anyone with a soapbox can speak on any subject of interest but must be prepared for heckling and abuse. After returning home, Richard matriculated at the University of Utah where, in 1931, he received an A.B. degree. Continuing his studies, he was awarded an M.A. degree in 1932 by the same school. During his academic career he married Alice Ruth Thornley who would bear him four children. In addition to his school and family responsibilities, Richard was forced by economic necessity to pursue an avocation. His journalistic experience in editing the Millenial Star stood him in good stead when he secured employment with KSL Radio in Salt Lake City as a staff announcer. As such he was privileged to accompany the Mormon Tabernacle Choir to the San Diego Exposition as radio announcer, and also to Winter Quarters in September, 1936, at the dedication of the monument, as radio announcer. He was given the distinction of being the announcer over the radio with the clearest diction. Indeed, he became best known to the world as the voice of The Spoken Word, a part of the weekly Mormon Tabernacle Broadcast. Elder Evans wrote, produced and announced the coast-to-coast radio network program from the Salt Lake Tabernacle from June, 1930 until his death in 1971. He was appointed managing editor of the Improvement Era in April, 1935, and filled that position with a rich background of efficient Church service and wide experience in business, education and editorial fields. He was named a member of the General Board of YMMIA in 1935. He was ordained a Seventy, and sustained as a member of the First Council of Seventy Oct. 7, 1938. Elder Evans was industrious, intelligent and sympathetic, a lover of truth and beauty, and, above all, he understood and practiced the principles of the restored Gospel. He acquired his education by persistent effort of his own, having worked at numerous occupations in order to attain his efficiency. Elder Evans was sustained to the Council of the Twelve and ordained an Apostle on October 8, 1953 by President David O. McKay, succeeding Elder Albert E. Bowen, who had died. He served with honor until his own death November 1, 1971 at Salt Lake City, Utah. In death he was mourned not only by members of the Church but by the millions of non-members who listened regularly to The Spoken Word on their radios.

Board of Trustees. (See Susa YOUNG.)

Board of Trustees, 1918 to 1945. Sixth President of the Board of Trustees, 1919 to 1945. President of the Church, 1918 to 1945. Born on November 22, 1856, in Salt Lake City, Heber J. Grant was raised by his widowed mother, Rachel Grant. By the time he was 15, he had begun a successful business career and had been ordained to the office of Seventy. Ten years later, he was called to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, where he served for 37 years. After becoming Church President on November 23, 1918, he dedicated three new temples, developed the Welfare Program, and helped Latter-day Saints cope with the tragedy of World War II. His business experience enabled him to modernize Church organizations and procedures. His missionary efforts, including extensive speaking engagements and friendships with national business leaders, brought the Church to the attention of the nation. After 27 years as President, Heber J. Grant died in Salt Lake City on May 14, 1945. His wife was Augusta Grant.

Board of Trustees, Brigham Young Academy, 1891 to 1893. George Watts Halliday was born on April 21, 1850 in Bristol, England. He married Louisa Hawley on May 13, 1873 in Salt Lake City, Utah. They had eight children. He died on March 1, 1943 in Pleasant Grove, Utah. Interment, Pleasant Grove.

Board of Trustees, 1962 to present. Marion Duff Hanks. Marion Duff Hanks, born October 13, 1921, is an emeritus general authority of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He is a past member of the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports (for which he received its Distinguished Service Award) and the President’s Citizens Advisory Committee on Children and Youth. In 1988, Hanks was awarded the Silver Buffalo Award by the Boy Scouts of America. Prior to his call as a general authority, he worked as an instructor in the Church Educational System. Hanks served in the Presidency of the Seventy twice following the 1976 reconstitution of the First Quorum of the Seventy. Previously, he also served on the First Council of the Seventy from 1953 to 1968 and as an Assistant to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles from 1968 to 1976. During a three-year period in the early 1960s, Hanks was the president of the LDS Church mission in England; among the missionaries in his mission was Jeffrey R. Holland, a future apostle of the church. In the mid-1970s Hanks served for a time as managing director of the church's Melchizedek Priesthood MIA. From 1982 to 1985, he was the president of the Salt Lake Temple. For a time Hanks served as a member of the Church Board of Education. In October 1992, Hanks was given general authority emeritus status. Hanks wrote the words to "That Eastern Morn", which is hymn #198 in the LDS Church's 1985 hymnal. ~ ~ ~ ~ His parents: Stanley A. Hanks and Maude Frame Hanks. He earned an LL.B. at the University of Utah in 1948. He married Maxine Christensen on August 24, 1949. They have the following children: Susan G. Hanks, Nancy Hanks, Ann Hanks, Mary Hanks, and Richard Hanks. He served as a missionary for the LDS Church from 1942-1944. He served as Director of the Bureau of Information on Temple Square in Salt Lake City from 1948-1956. He was the Vice President of Allen-Duff Associates, an advertising firm, in Salt Lake City from 1951-57; Gull, Inc., merchandising, Salt Lake City, 1955--. He became a General Authority of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1953, serving as a member of the Council of Seventy. He became an Assistant to Twelve from 1968-1976, a member again of the First Quorum of Seventy from 1976-1992, and served in the Presidency of First Quorum of Seventy from 1976-1980 and again from 1984-1992. He was named an Emeritus General Authority in 1992. He also served as a member of the US President's Advisory Committee on the Fitness of American Youth. He has served the board of directors of Mental Health Services; Society for Crippled Children of the Salvation Army. He served as Associate Director of the Institute of Religion at the University of Utah; director of West Seminary; and member of the Board of Trustees of Weber College. He served in the US Naval Reserve from 1944-1946 in the Pacific Theatre. He was named Outstanding Young Man of Utah by US Junior Chamber of Commerce in 1954. Marion D. Hanks died on Friday, August 5, 2011 in Salt Lake City, Utah, at the age of 89. He and his wife Maxine had 5 children.