Building Dedication Honors N. Eldon Tanner

Dedicatory services were held April 5 for Brigham Young University’s recently completed N. Eldon Tanner Building. At the services, the building’s namesake, President N. Eldon Tanner, First Counselor in the First Presidency until his death last November at age 84, was honored as a man of unquestioned integrity and devoted service.

President Gordon B. Hinckley, Second Counselor in the First Presidency, characterized President Tanner as “a great teacher, particularly by the power of his example. His was a tremendous odyssey from that Alberta farm to a station in life where he was at home with kings and became a companion to prophets.”

President Hinckley’s dedicatory prayer paid further tribute to the man whose name the building bears. “Nathan Eldon Tanner was our friend and associate,” he said, “and in a much larger measure he was the friend of all who use this campus and of all who are blessed by this institution. Each of us has been and will continue to be the beneficiary of his quick perception, his tremendous foresight, and his exceptional wisdom. … May the influence of his good life be felt by all who study here. May there grow a legend, founded in truth and nurtured with fact, the legend of a man whose principles were unimpeachable and whose industry was unexcelled.”

BYU’s President Jeffrey R. Holland, describing some of the unique facets of the building’s construction, pointed out that despite its impressive beauty and functional design, “the N. Eldon Tanner Building is unique because it is the N. Eldon Tanner Building, and because the Rockville white granite which characterizes it is so much like the man himself.”

“To those,” said President Holland, “who suggest that one must compromise one’s values to succeed in the hard-nosed world of business, I commend the name of N. Eldon Tanner.

“To those who say that ‘connections’ are more important than commitment, I commend the name of N. Eldon Tanner.

“To those who say that they lack the time for family and profession and Church and community, I commend the name of N. Eldon Tanner.”

The N. Eldon Tanner Building, completed in late 1982, houses academic offices and programs of the BYU School of Management, which is comprised of the College of Business and the Graduate School of Management.