1974
LDS Scene
January 1974


“LDS Scene,” Ensign, Jan. 1974, 142–43

LDS Scene

Elder Robert L. Simpson, Assistant to the Council of the Twelve, and Dr. Burton F. Brasher, a Salt Lake City physician and surgeon, have received the Silver Antelope Award of the Boy Scouts of America. The awards are presented in recognition of noteworthy service or exceptional character to boyhood by registered Scouts. Elder Simpson entered Scouting as a Sea Scout in Santa Monica, California, and since has served on a number of national Boy Scouts of America committees. Dr. Brasher, a member of the Jordan North Second Ward, Jordan North Stake, a Life Scout, serves in a number of local and also national Scouting committees, and also has served on the medical staff at national and world jamborees.

Brother William Makaneole, a first class petty officer in the United States Navy, came out tops of some 10,000 military personnel when he was named “man of the year” at the Subic Bay Naval Base in the Philippines. Sister Makaneole also made the local headlines when she was named Navy wife of the year for the whole Pacific area. Members of the Subic Bay Branch, Philippines Mission, Brother and Sister Makaneole are active in Sunday School and Relief Society, respectively. In addition, Sister Makaneole is active in various organizations and service groups, and works with several naval base councils to make life more comfortable for others.

President Ted E. Davis, president of the University Fourth Branch, University First Stake at the University of Utah, Salt Lake City, is justifiably proud of his active branch members. With an average membership of 70 families, the Fourth Branch performed 1,012 temple endowments during the past Church year. High month for the year was 225 endowments in May. Eighty percent of the branch’s temple recommend holders attended the temple monthly, and 92 percent of the members have either three or four generations of family group sheets submitted during the past year. There were 206 individual names submitted for temple work as the result of genealogical research, and 60 people in the branch completed an eight-week genealogy class. President Davis says that, considering the number of families involved, “so far as we have been able to determine, this is the highest record known of endowments and other genealogical activity of any branch in one given year. This is particularly significant in that the branch members are all students and most have part-time jobs as well.”

Eight-year-old Earlet Phillips, a member of the Royal Oaks Ward, Detroit (Michigan) Stake, has not only been attending Primary regularly but has been bearing the title of World Majorette Queen for September–October 1973. The title was won after competition with 50 girls in Michigan and then 11 other girls in the finals in Atlantic City, New Jersey. In addition to her baton twirling, for which she has received 40 trophies, young Sister Phillips also does tap dancing and modeling.

Brother Alfe Pratte, Oahu, Hawaii, public relations coordinator for the Church, has been appointed a member of the Honolulu Community Media Council. Brother Pratte will work with other members of the council in an attempt to form practical standards of conduct for the communications media in Hawaii.

Approximately 60 Young Adults from five stakes in the Salt Lake City area recently pitched in to help raise funds for the Juvenile Court’s Detention Home in the city. Working with the volunteer auxiliary of the detention home, the Young Adults collected items that could be sold at a special booth in a local shopping center. Stores donated either finished goods or material that was used to create saleable items. The stakes involved were the four Sandy stakes (Sandy, East, West, and North), and the Mt. Jordan Stake.

The official and private papers of United States Senator Wallace F. Bennett of Utah have been donated by the senator to the Brigham Young University Library. The papers reflect some 24 years of service in the Senate and cover the many important assignments that Senator Bennett has received on government committees. The senator, who was a former member of the Sunday School General Board, will be retiring at the end of his current term.

Dr. Victor B. Cline, who wrote the article “How do movies and TV influence behavior?” that appeared in the October 1972 Ensign, recently received national recognition for his fight against pornography. Brother Cline was honored at the Morality in Media Eighth Annual Awards Dinner held in New York City for his contributions to the Report of the Presidential Commission on Obscenity and Pornography, in which he criticized the commission’s findings.

The Brigham Young University Student Chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers has been singled out as the “most outstanding student chapter in the United States for 1973.” One of 183 chapters throughout the United States, the chapter was chosen because of its academic and community service projects during the 1972 calendar year. For the eleventh consecutive year, the student chapter also received a certificate of commendation for its activities.

Dr. Russell M. Nelson, general president of the Sunday School, has been elected chairman of the Advisory Council of Thoracic Surgeons of the American College of Surgeons. President Nelson, who is affiliated with many professional societies, is a research professor at the University of Utah.

Two volumes of organ music compiled and edited by Dr. Darwin Wolford of Ricks College, Rexburg, have been published nationally by Harold Flammer, Inc. This makes three volumes of organ music that Dr. Wolford has had published nationally.

Dr. Hal G. Moore, professor of mathematics at Brigham Young University, has been elected to the board of directors of the Society of Sigma Xi, an international organization dedicated to promotion of scientific research.

A graduate of Brigham Young University has been officially installed as president of BYU’s “friendly rival,” the University of Utah. Dr. David P. Gardner, a member of the Monument Park 15th Ward, Monument Park Stake, graduated from BYU with his bachelor’s degree in 1955 and went on to earn his master’s and his doctorate degrees at the University of California at Berkeley. Brother Gardner was born in Berkeley, and eventually became assistant chancellor at the University of California at Santa Barbara and a vice-president of the university’s non-campus system. He is married to the former Elizabeth Jean Fuhriman of Piedmont, California, and they have four daughters. His installation as the tenth president of the University of Utah was attended by local, state, and federal officials, and the invocation was offered by Elder Thomas S. Monson of the Council of the Twelve.

Although the energy crisis has created a gasoline shortage in Japan and some European countries, Church activity appears unaffected. In countries where gasoline rationing has been introduced, or where private vehicles are not to be used on Sundays, most Church members travel to and from meetings by public transportation, by bicycle, or on foot.

Sister Dorothy M. Carson is the newly elected president of the Arizona Municipal Judges Association. Sister Carson, a municipal court judge in Phoenix, Arizona, has successfully combined a professional career with her role as wife and mother. Her husband, Roy Carson, is vice-president of Spring City Knitting Co., and they are the parents of two teenage children. In addition, Sister Carson is inservice leader for the Aaronic Priesthood MIA and the Sunday School in the Phoenix Second Ward, Phoenix Stake, has been active in 12 professional organizations, and has served in 21 community and service groups. “I am seeking to live up to my patriarchal blessing that says my mission is that of motherhood and of leadership. My activities have become family activities as my husband and two children have shared my victories and disappointments and faced new challenges with me.” A believer in living the principles of the gospel, Sister Carson says, “We must not leave our religion at the doorstep as we leave the chapel. If we don’t carry the teachings of the Church into our homes, jobs, businesses, and professions, then we fail to fully live up to what we claim to believe in.”

Frank Asper, known to many thousands of people as the organist of the Salt Lake Tabernacle for 41 years, died at the age of 82. Brother Asper made his debut as an organist at the age of 12 in 1904, and then went on to present some 1,000 recitals around the world. He served on the Church General Music Committee until 1967, and on his retirement as Tabernacle Organist in 1965 he was named organist emeritus. He was succeeded by Dr. Alexander Schreiner.

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Brother and Sister Makaneole

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Dr. David P. Gardner

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Sister Dorothy M. Carson