LDS Scene

Vice Admiral Paul A. Yost, Jr., a Latter-day Saint, was promoted to the rank of admiral and became commandant of the United States Coast Guard May 30. Admiral Yost is the second Church member ever to attain four-star rank in the U.S. armed services. The first was Air Force General John K. Cannon, who rose to that rank in the 1950s. A native of St. Petersburg, Florida, Brother Yost has served as a bishop in New Orleans, Louisiana, and also has served as a high councilor or branch president several times. He is a 1951 graduate of the Coast Guard Academy, and holds the Distinguished Service Medal and Silver Star.

Alfred Duncan Mackay was a bit past his eighth birthday when he was baptized in February—nearly ninety-two years past it!—to become one of the oldest persons to join the Church. Brother Mackay, whose 100th birthday came on May 28, was a trained nurseryman and floriculturist who had served King Edward VII and King George V in his native England. He immigrated to the United States in 1911 and found work in Idaho, where in 1919 he bought a farm southeast of Sugar City. He married Helen Balem, also from England, a Ricks College student, who joined the Church in 1930. Brother Mackay encouraged the activity of his wife and children in the Church; he sang in Church choirs and helped with the Boy Scouts. He had contemplated joining the Church many times as missionaries and friends taught him its truthfulness, but he finally felt the time was right earlier this year.

Five Latter-day Saints were among a group of Maoris who sang for Queen Elizabeth when she visited New Zealand recently. The women, members of the Wellington New Zealand Stake, were part of a twenty-member Maori chorus that sang for the opening of Parliament. The director of the group was Te Puoho Katene, the stake’s patriarch.

Five LDS meetinghouses in Santiago, Chile, were damaged by bomb blasts April 22, but no one was injured. The late-night bombings caused an estimated $18,000 in damages, mostly to the meetinghouse entrances and windows. Local Church leaders are working with officials investigating the bombings.

LDS Business College in Salt Lake City is seeking information about alumni in connection with celebration of the college’s centennial which begins this summer. Alumni who wish to contact the school may write: LDS Business College Centennial Planning Committee, 411 East South Temple Street, Salt Lake City, UT 84111, or call (801) 363-2765.