Institute of Idaho and Utah

     Our experience in Moscow was very rewarding for us.  The enrollment at the Institute continued to grow and attendance at our ward meetings also was increasing.  We were challenged but very happy.

     Then, one day in the Spring of 1962, I received a telephone call from Brother William E. Berrett, the administrator of seminaries and institutes of religion asking if I would consider accepting an assignment to serve with Brother Lowell L. Bennion as Associate Director of the Institute of Religion adjacent to the University of Utah.  I thought they were just being nice to us since our parents and extended family were all located in the general area.  We were very busy with much that still needed to be done in Moscow with the Institute and the Bishop’s calling.  I declined the offer.

     About a week later, Brother Berrett called again and said, “The Brethren would like you to accept the offer to serve at the Salt Lake Institute.”  That was all that was needed and sad as we were to leave the choice students and dear friends in Moscow, we prepared for the move to Salt Lake City. 

     Moving was different then than it became later on the CES System.  It was primarily a personal responsibility at our own expense.  Now, looking back,  it almost seems unbelievable to me that my Dad and Mom would drive the 800+/- miles from Banida, Idaho in one of their grain hauling trucks in which we loaded our furniture and moved us south, first to the farm in Banida to work in the summer, and then to Salt Lake City for our new assignment.  As usual, when we moved, Barbara was expecting another delivery.  This time, it was Spencer, who arrived the following October 12, 1962.

     When the contracts arrived in the Spring of 1962, my assignment read that I was to serve as “Acting Director” of the Salt Lake Institute of Religion rather than as an “Associate Director.”  I thought there had been a typographical error and so I didn’t sign the contract thinking that when we were to be in Provo in July for the Summer weeks of training for Seminary and Institute or Religion personnel, I could have the secretary make the corrections and I would sign the contract. 

     I was surprised to learn that there was not a mistake made and that I was to become the “Acting Director” succeeding Dr. Lowell L. Bennion who had served there for more than 26 years!  Before the end of the summer session at BYU, the “Acting” portion of the contract had been removed and I was to become the Director. 

     I was overwhelmed.  Brothers Lowell L. Bennion and T. Edgar Lyon had become literally “institutions” in their time and were loved and respected by so many hundreds, even thousands, of students.  I had taken evening classes from both of them when I was teaching seminary at Granite High School.  I learned to appreciate both of them as persons and as knowledgeable and able teachers.  Brother T. Edgar Lyon, the associate director and to continue serving, was born the same year as my Dad in 1902.  I had just turned 33 years of age.

     My assignment there was not universally appreciated.  Shortly after arrival, I received one call from some man saying, “Why don’t you go home to your mother!” I felt so blessed to finally feel more comfortable in the assignment and that I had won the friendship and support of Brother Lyon, Albert Payne, Ethel Smith, who was Lowell Bennion’s sister-in-law and who had served for many years as Secretary to the Director, as well as the rest of the Faculty.  We had a good team and worked well together.

     The students were magnificent!  The enrollment at the Institute continued to increase from what I now recall being around 1200 students until eight years later to reach 4,000+.  The LDS Student Association was created that enabled us to have a recognized place among the authorized organizations at the University of Utah and that would permit us to advertise LDSAA events on campus. 

     We organized the Friday “Forums” and devotionals in which general authorities and others spoke each week, the Institute Choir that performed as well as traveled to other areas, invited members of the First Council of Seventies, e. g. Elders Bruce R. McConkie, A. Theodore Tuttle, Paul Dunn and Marion D. Hanks (who had taught for years previously), the Friday Night Dances which were open to all college-age singles, Sigma Gamma Chi, the mens’ chapters of what formally was the co-educational Lambda Delta Sigma.  As time went on, it was interesting to observe that most of these programs were adopted on many other campuses and institutes of religion particularly along the Wasatch Front, Utah generally, Arizona and Southern California.

     The last few years, (ca. 1966-70),  while serving as Institute Director adjacent to the U. of U., Brother William E. Berrett asked me to serve as the Coordinator of Seminaries and Institutes of Religion in Salt Lake Area and so I then was involved in visiting and training for the System throughout the Salt Lake and Tooele County areas.