LIFE HISTORY
OF
DAVID EAMES GLEDHILL

Submitted by David Eames Gledhill

My father, Thomas Ray Gledhill, was still in medical school when Ora May was born to him and mother. Soon after Ora was born mother underwent an operation, and she was told that she would probably never be able to have any more children. Mother refused to accept this and asked to be administered to that she might bring more children into the world. Six years later, Preston Ray was born, then Utahna, Evelyn, Theodore Roger, Ilah Dean, and on May 24, 1927, I was born.

After my birth, Mother was ill for most of the next three months and I was taken care of by my sister Ora and other women that Dad hired to come into the house and help out.

My early childhood was spent much the same as any other child in a largely LDS community. I was taught to pray regularly and to attend to my duties in the church. As a child I was often sick and seemed to be the first to catch any contagious disease that was going around. At one time I remember being confined to the upstairs of the house for weeks when I had Scarlet Fever. During that time, I would see my father twice a day - morning and night. Mother would leave my meals at the bottom of the stairs. I think this was one of the loneliest times of my young life. At another time when I had the Measles, my sister Ilah Dean would come in after school and read to me. She would be with me much of the time when I was ill, but she seldom seemed to get any of the diseases or other afflictions I had.

At the age of eight I was baptized in the old Richfield Second Ward building by Stanford Poulson, a priest in our ward, the Richfield Fourth Ward. I was confirmed a member of the church by my father.

As a child my closes friends were Mack Pace, who lived just three houses west of us, my cousin Tom Christensen, and Reeve Chidester. We spent many hours playing in the neighborhood and roaming through the red hills west of town.

At the age of twelve I was ordained a Deacon by Andrew Rowley, the second counselor in the ward bishopric. Shortly after I was ordained, Kenneth Isabel became counselor in the bishopric and became our advisor and teacher. Mack Pace was President of the quorum, I was first Counselor and Lowell Peterson was second Counselor. We had a good quorum, and Brother Isabel was a great influence in my life. I will always be grateful to him for giving me opportunity to develop leadership and to have the satisfaction one can have trough spirituality and service in the church.

I got along well with other children and was interested in all school activities. I served as a student body officer all six years that I was in secondary school. My two main interests in school were athletics and dramatics.

My brother Preston was stake drama director when I was in the eighth grade, and he asked me to be in his three-act play for the stake. I enjoyed it so much that it started my interest in drama. Every year that I was in High School I was in the annual school play, I enjoyed it very much.

One of the classes that I enjoyed as much or more than any other was seminary. I will always remember some of the interesting doctoral discussions we had in those classes. Nearly every Friday, our instructor, Alton Maxwell would let us ask questions about what we had been studying or any other doctrinal question. Some of my fundamental knowledge of the gospel was gained in those years in seminary classes.

During my senior year in seminary I was given the lead in a seminary pageant, which included all of the students who took seminary. It was presented three nights to large crowds in the stake tabernacle. It was a very rewarding and faith promoting experience for me. When the pageant was over, Brother Smith, the principal of the seminary, sent me a personal letter thanking me for my work, and he commended me particularly for being dependable in my calling. This letter had a great influence on my life. During rehearsals, for the pageant, I saw many young people who did not take their parts seriously or learn their lines, or sometimes did not show up for practice. I was determined that I was going to do my best and be responsible. When Brother Smith sent me the letter and thanked me for being dependable in the Lord's work, I made up my mind then that I would always try my best to do good job in whatever calling I had in the Church. Throughout my life I have tried to do this.

As a boy and young man perhaps the main thing that occupied by mind and my time were sports. l was always running as a child, some of my earliest recollections were the races they always had on the 4th of' July in Richfield. Almost everyone in the valley would come to the Richfield City Park for the community celebration. About every child in town would line up to race when his particular age group was called, because each participant in the race got a sucker, which was a real treat for children in those days. The winner of each age group got a ribbon to wear plus a nickel to spend. I won those races for my age group must every year.

Most of my athletic interests were directed toward basketball. I was one of two boys who made the varsity squad as a sophomore. As a junior I played a lot and started several games. When I was a senior in High School I injured my back and had to wear a brace most of the winter, and I was not able to participate in athletics at all.

Some of my fondest memories as a child were the fine times we had together as a family. We were a close family and I think all of us looked forward to special holidays when we could all get together. I used to really look forward to thanksgiving and Christmas because all the family would come home and be together. We would get together and play games and the men and boys would play basketball or tennis and we had many wonderful times that will always remain with me as a highlight in my life.

When I was I3 years old I worked for my uncle Roy Buchannan and other farmers thinning beets and hauling hay. I earned about $200.00 that summer. In the fall I bought a jersey cow from my seminary teacher with the money. Dad also bought a cow, and we had an agreement that if I would milk his cow and take care of it along with my cow he would pay for the feed for both cows. So every night and morning until I left to go into the Navy, I milked those two cows. I would take the milk from Dad's cow into the house for the family, and I would put the milk from my cow into a milk can and send it to the creamery. This cow supported me through high school; I purchased all my clothes and supported myself completely from that cow. I loved those cows and wanted to keep them. I asked Dad if he would milk the cows after I left for the Navy. He milked them for two days and then sold them both.

World War II started in l941 when I was in the ninth grade, My brother T.R. was in Hawaii on a mission when Pearl Harbor was bombed. The efforts of everyone in the country suddenly became directed towards the war. The entertainment, the work, rationing and most of the conversation were subjects pertaining to the war. For some of the younger people like myself jobs became easier to get because all the older boys were in the service. I went to work for the Forest Service in the summer time. I worked for them several years on the Fish lake National Forest; it was an excellent job for a young man. I worked in the mountains every summer that I was in high school and some of the years I was in college. During that time I developed a great love of the mountains and have always desired to go out in the mountains whenever possible.

In March of 1945 I knew I was going to be drafted into the service as soon as I graduated from high school. I had enough credits to graduate so rather than wait to be drafted into the Army, I joined the Navy. I left for Boot Camp in San Diego in April of 1945. I served in the Navy for 16 months. I served on a destroyer and we went to the pacific and the Orient for a few months.

While I was in the service I learned to enjoy books, I had never been much of a reader, but in the service I found I had lots of time on my hands, and I read many books.

Also while I was in the Navy, I saw for the first time some of the evil that existed in the world. I was shocked at many of the things that I saw. I suppose I had always taken the church for granted. I had attended church each week but I had never appreciated the influence that the church had been on people until I became associated with those who did not have the standards that I had always taken for granted. It made me realize the blessings I had as a member of this church, and it was my desire to become closer to the church. At one time I was in a Navy hospital in San Diego with pneumonia. I had been very ill and a little homesick; a very young sailor came to my bed one day and introduced himself as a member of the church. He told me that they held church services at the hospital every Sunday and invited me out to church when I got feeling well enough, I was very happy for the visit and looked forward to meeting with some people from home. The only Sunday I was there and well enough to attend I did. There was five other sailors end one wave in attendance. We didn't have any lesson or sacrament, but just sat around in a circle, sang a hymn, said a prayer and then each person bore their testimony. I think I felt the Spirit of the Lord more in that meeting than perhaps any other time in my life up to that point. I said to the others at that time that it was my desire to live close to the church and someday be worthy to go on a mission for the church.

Although I did not always keep the commandments as strictly as I should after I was released from the Navy, I did continue to be active in the church and attend to my Priesthood responsibilities. I attended B. Y. U. two years until I was old enough to be called on a mission, which at that time was 21 years of age.

The following is an experience I had while on leave from the Navy, written by my sister Utahna:

It was V. J. (Victory over Japan) Day in Richfield, Utah, August 14,1945, and everyone was happier than we had dreamed possible after nearly four years of war.

"I was living at home with Dad and Mother and our little Beverly while her Daddy was serving in the army. My brother, David was home on leave from the Navy. David, the youngest in our family had enlisted that spring, about a month before his 18th birthday, and a month before his high school graduation. We were all happy to have him home. Our brother, T. R., who was going to the University of Utah had come home to see him.
David had heard through his friends that there would be a Victory dance that night at Fish Lake. Fish Lake was a summer resort 35 miles away there we had all spent many happy hours in recreation. Dave and two of his friends decided that they would like to get dates and go to the dance.

Mother was very upset at the idea because there was always so many "drinkers" at the dances on regular dancing nights, and she knew it was always worse when there was a celebration. Especially since part of the road to Fish Lake was at that time a dangerous dug way.

T. R. and I took Dave's part and scoffed at Mothers fears. All of us had gone there to dances in the summer and we thought Dave certainly should go and celebrate with his friends. T. R. offered to leave his car for David to take to the dance, and when the offer was accepted he returned to Salt Lake with one of his friends.

So in spite of Mothers worry, David arranged with his friends to go to Fish Lake, and was soon off.

I went to bed full of happiness that the war was over and that I'd soon be re-united with my husband. Suddenly, in the middle of the night, I awakened with a start. Then I pondered over what had awakened me. I hadn't heard any noise and my little girl was sleeping soundly at the side of me. It wasn't worry or concerned and I felt no physical discomfort. I looked at the clock and noticed it was a quarter to the hour. I don't remember which hour it was these 20 years later, but it was past midnight.

After lying awake for a few minutes I thought I would walk down the hall and get a drink of water. As I passed David's bedroom, which was on the second story near mine, I noticed the bed was still neatly made, so I knew he wasn't home from Fish Lake.

Suddenly a wave of disaster flashed over me and I knew something was terribly wrong with David. I had no doubt about it, the feeling was so strong my whole body trembled. I forgot all about getting a drink and rushed back to my bedroom, kneeling at my bed I prayed fervently over and over for the Lord's blessings to be with David.

After about five minutes on my knees, I had a "Peace" come over me and I knew for certain he was all right. As I got back into bed I noticed the clock said it was five minutes to the hour.

Apparently I dropped right off to sleep, which is something else I seldom do, but the next thing I knew it was an hour and half later. This time I was awakened by a noise, the sound of footsteps. I could hear someone walking around the side of the house, coming up the back porch, (which was just below my bedroom window,) and opening the kitchen door. I knew it was David, I was acutely aware that no car had driven up, or I would have heard it. I knew, from my experience in the night, that David must have had a car wreck. I heard him go into Mother's bedroom and then
Heard the voices of he, mother and Dad. I didn't go downstairs because I was afraid of awakening Beverly, who was very frail and sickly at that time. It was close to morning by then, and the important thing to me was that Dave was safe.

When I finally went downstairs and heard the details, another car ran head-on into him. T.R.'s car was almost destroyed, it was so badly hit, yet not one of the six occupants was more than scratched.

When I ask David what time the accident happened, he said the clock in the car stopped at ten minutes to the hour. This information was especially important to me, as I knew I was on my knees praying for him at this time.

I told my Mother of my experience and she told me a similar story. She had instructed David to come in and speak to her when he got home, as all of us had done when we were out on dates. She thought he may have come in while she was asleep so she went upstairs to his room a good hour before I had awakened. She had, of course, been praying for him too, all of this time. Apparently the additional supplication to the Lord, from me, was needed. At any rate, our prayers, Mothers and mine had been instrumental in preserving his life. For this I have always been very grateful, especially since I know, without doubt, that it was the Holy Ghost that awakened me right at the time of crises.

I know the Lord spared David's life for an important mission. As I am writing this in October 1965, David has served over five years as bishop of the Springville First ward, and he is just 38 gears old. May God continue blessing him."

While I was in the Navy attempted several times to read the Book of Mormon, but I never finished it. Twice I got bogged down in II Nephi and once I got just through the book of Alma. After my first year of college I came home and was not scheduled to go to work for Forest Service for a few days. My folks were on a trip to Mexico and I was home alone. I decided during the time I was home alone, I would read the Book of Mormon from cover to cover. I started to read and the spirit of the Lord came to me, and I became so interested that I could hardly put it down. I prayed about the book for the first time, and the Lord bore witness to me at that time that the book was true. I finished the book in just two days and it was one of the fine spiritual experiences of my life up to that time.

As I matured in my knowledge of the gospel through religion classes at the "Y", I would of ten spend time with my father discussing principles of the gospel. We developed a closer relationship through these experiences. My father was a real student of the Book of Mormon. I have read the book many times in my life, but I have never gained the knowledge of this great book that my father had.

In the s ummer of 1948 when I was waiting for my call to go on a mission. I stayed at B. Y. U. and took several religion classes. I had classes from Sidney B. Sperry and Hugh B. Brown. It was a period of great spiritual development for me and helped prepare me for my mission. I enjoyed that summer very much even though I lived alone in one of the dorms on the B. Y. U. campus. All of my classes were in the morning and nearly every afternoon I would go water skiing for an hour or so with some friends and then study in the evenings.

When I was in the service in the Orient, I got a fungus growth that had bothered me constantly for three years. I was seeing a dermatologist in Salt Lake about it. When I told him I had been called to go on a mission to Great Briton, he said that was probably to worst place I could go with my skin problems. Be said that he would be willing to write a letter to the missionary committee for me suggesting that I be sent to a warmer, dryer climate where my skin problem would not be a factor. However, I had always wanted to go to England on my mission, and I felt the Lord had answered my prayers by sending me there, and it was His will that I go to England. After completing the week instruction we were given in the mission home, my parents came up to Salt Lake to see me set apart as a missionary by Levi Edger Young. He gave me a beautiful blessing and promised me that if I was faithful in my work that I would not be hampered in my missionary efforts by any problems of health.

Shortly after I arrived in England my fungus cleared up for the first time in three years and I have never been bothered with the problem again.

The details of my mission are written in other journals, but it was certainly a period of great blessing in my life. I will ever be grateful to the Lord for giving me the opportunity to preach the gospel as I did. It seemed to be my lot to spend most of my time in administrative positions and less in actually teaching the gospel than I would have liked, but the mission experience was a great period of growth in my life. My father told me before I left that the course of my whole life would be influenced by my mission. This has certainly proved to be true. The experiences I had in church administration, in public speaking, and in dedication to the work has been the kind of life I have had in the church since my mission. My only wish is that I had been more dedicated and more diligent in my efforts both on my mission and in my life since.

I was released from my mission in the first part of October in 1950. With four other missionaries we toured Europe. We picked up a little car in Holland and went through Belgium, France, Germany, and Italy and back to Holland where we left the car. Then three of us went through Denmark, Norway, and Sweden and across the English Channel and back to England. We went to Scotland, Ireland and Wales and back to London. We sailed back to America on the Queen Mary in the early part of December. Gordon Condie and Sherman Sheffield, whom I was traveling with, went up to Detroit and picked up a car that Gordon's father had purchased for him. We had spent a few days in New York and Washington prior to going to Detroit. On the way home we visited some of the church historical points and took a southern route home arriving on December 22, 1950.

I went back to B. Y. U. for the rest of that school year. The next summer, 1951, I got a job with Grayline Sight Seeing Tours in Salt Lake City. We took tours of the city, Bingham Copper mine, Great Salt Lake and other pieces around the valley. It was a good experience and I had many opportunities to explain Mormon history and other things about the city and the church.

The next summer I got a job as tour bus guide with the Utah Parks Company taking tours around the Parks. Our headquarters were in Cedar City and we would pick up a busload of people from the train and take them to Zion Park, Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon and Cedar Breaks. It was one of the finest summers I had ever had mostly because it was here that I met Joy Christiansen, who later became my wife. The first tour I took out of Cedar City was very exciting to me. We had one to Zion and Grand Canyon and had one day left when we went to Bryce. We had become very friendly as bus driver and tour people, and one man on the bus from New Orleans organized the group and they were going to see if they could have a party at dinner that night far me in appreciation for the good time we had on the trip. They said that they would see the dining room hostess and see if we could all get together for dinner. I had heard about Joy Christiansen, the hostess at Bryce, ever since I got to the parks. She had been there for years and everyone knew her. That evening we had our party and Joy came over and joined us. After the party Joy and I went to the dance they had there each night. In the weeks to come I got to see her every few days. It wasn't long until I realized that this was the girl that I wanted to marry. We had many wonderful times that summer hiking through the canyon and sitting out on the rim of that beautiful place. By the time the summer was over I had asked her to wear my Bricker Social Unit pin.

She left the canyon early in August to go with her folks back East to pick up her brother Allen from his mission. I worked for a few more weeks and then I got word that my mother had had a Stroke. I left shortly after that to go home. Mother was somewhat better, but she had become paralyzed from her waist down and she was somewhat irrational. Although her mind did clear up so she could speak and act normally for more months, she never got so she could walk again.

At that time, I talked with my father and told him that I wanted to get married. I didn't have much money. I wanted to buy a diamond, but I didn't have enough money to buy that and still get started in my last year of school, so I decided I would stay out of school for a quarter or two and see if I could earn some money.

When Joy got back from the east, I went to see her. She had started teaching school again at Mt. Fort Elementary School. This was her second year teaching. We were going to a football game in Provo and on the way down from Ogden we stopped in Salt Lake and went up to the State Capitol Building. We sat out on the lawn and I gave her the diamond I had purchased and she agreed to become my wife.

A few days later I left for Los Angeles to look for a job while Joy continued to teach. I got a Job at the Leo J. Myberg Wholesale Electrical Distributing Co. for the next four or five months. I found a place to live in the home of members of the church.

I stayed in Los Angeles until March of 1953 a when I came back to Provo and registered for my last quarter at B. Y. U. On April 9, 1953 Joy and I were married in the Manti Temple. I have always felt this has been the most significant event in my entire life. To have the privilege of having such a sweet girl as Joy to become my wife, and to be sealed in the Holy Temple for time and eternity has truly been my choicest blessing. I have never regretted a day we have spent together. I loved her then and I love her more now.

My mother who had not gone out of the house for months was able to come to the temple with us. She did not come up to Ogden to our reception, but the rest of the family did. Shortly after we left the temple it started to snow and that afternoon and evening it snowed 18 inches. The roads were closed at the point of' the mountain and between Salt Lake and Ogden for a few hours. After the reception we drove dawn to our little apartment in Wymount Village in Provo. This was a converted army barracks. It was a one-room apartment with a hot plate and an icebox. I was working every day besides going to school, so we didn't have a honeymoon.

That spring and summer joy and I both worked and I finished school at B.Y.U. In the fall we both signed a contract to teach in Springville. We got an apartment at 339 South First West. It was a fourplex. Joy taught second grade at the Lincoln School and I taught at the Springville Junior High.

On March I8, 1954 Bret was born which seem to complete our happiness as a couple. I remember standing at the window where they kept the babies in the Utah Valley Hospital and looking at our new baby for a long time. To see this new little soul lying there after having so recently having come from our Father in Heaven gave me a great spiritual uplift and helped to further strengthen my testimony of the great plan of life and salvation that the Lord has provided for us. I felt so strongly that God had given us a special spirit to raise and teach the gospel to that I preyed for His help in rearing this sweet spirit so he would be worthy to be a member of Gods Kingdom on earth. With each child that was born to us I have been as grateful and have asked the same prayer to help us raise our children the way the Lord would have us do.

In the fall of 1955 we bought our first house on 700 South 800 East in Springville. While we lived there our daughter Rebecca was born on October 15, 1958. Most of my parents grand children had been boys and we were expecting another boy, but hoping for a girl, so we were particularly pleased to have a daughter come into our home. We named her Rebecca Joy after my mother (her grandmother) and her mother Joy.

Our third child, Kent was also born when we lived in the 800 East house. Joy and I had been to Stake Conference on Easter Sunday and after the afternoon session Joy said she thought it was time that we go to the hospital. Kent was born that night, March 3O, 1964.

Our children have been our greatest challenge and also our greatest joy in life. Joy and I are so thankful that we had healthy happy children. As I look back on my life I can truthfully say that the most pleasant experiences I have had have been the many happy hours I have spent with my good wife and our three wonderful children.

In the fall of 1960 I was called to be Bishop of the Springville First Ward. We had just started a building project in the ward and our goal was to raise seventy thousand dollars as the ward's share of the cost to the building. At that time seventy thousand dollars seemed almost an insurmountable task. We lived in a poorer section of town and could not expect all of the donations to come from the individual members to raise all of that money. In fact as I looked over the tithing records of the ward I found that Joy and I were the biggest contributors to the tithing fund in the ward. For five years we organized every kind of activity that we could think of to raise money. We sponsored the Fourth of July celebration for five years. We had bazaars and sponsored almost anything that came along to raise money. During that time other things improved in the ward. Our Aaronic priesthood program was greatly strengthened. Our Sacrament meeting attendance rose from 24% to 37%. The Lord blessed us very much.

During the construction of the building we arranged to do a good part of the construction work ourselves. So every day for six months we had people there on the job. This was a very big job in getting people out to work every day. But the brethren responded and there was never a day when we did not have someone on the job along with the supervisor we had hired to see to the construction. Our Stake President said at one time that the reason we had so much success in getting people out is because Bishop Christensen from the 12th Ward and I were there at the job every day to see who was there and what was being done. Many great and wonderful experiences occurred during the building. I will just relate one as an example of many: We had just finished the new chapel and moved into it. The problem then arose as to what to do with the old building that had been there since 1890. There were thousands of dollars worth of material in the building so I wanted the ward to tear the building down and sell the material. We made application from the building committee to do this, but were turned down. I went to Salt Lake to see the Area Building Supervisor who had rejected our application because it was too dangerous for local people to do. I asked to see his superior and he gave us an appointment with the chairman of the building committee. Several of us from both wards went to see the chairman, Brother Mendenhall, but he also rejected our request. I then asked to see Bishop Vandenberg, the presiding Bishop. Two weeks later there was a Solemn Assembly in the Manti Temple, which was a beautiful experience. After the meeting Bishop Vandenberg met with me in one of the rooms of the temple. He told me to go back home and get a contractor to tear the building down and that the Lord would bless us if we did. A contractor tore the building down and then left the foundation and abandoned us. He left the country after selling all the materials in the building and we had nothing but a big hole and a shell of a building with a thick foundation. For several weeks we looked for the contractor and did little about collecting money for our building. It was a very discouraging experience. Things reached a low ebb in the ward, and as I finally realized it was probably because I was not putting my complete faith in what the Presiding Bishop had told me to "go home and do my best and the Lord would bless us."

The next Sunday I called a special fast for the Lord to bless us, so we could finish the things that needed to be done on the new chapel and take care of the old building. That very night when I got home from church the telephone rang and Dick Sumsion, a local contractor, was on the line. He said to me, "Bishop, I go by your church every day on the way to work end see that old shell of a building in front of that beautiful new church, and I think it is the worst eyesore in town. What are you going to do about it?" I explained our situation to him, and then he said, "We are moving our heavy equipment from a construction job up Spanish Fork Canyon down to the freeway job south of town this week. If you want we'll stop by and knock down that old building for you."

The next morning before school, I met him and his supervisor Glen Lawder down to the old meetinghouse. They were standing on a block of cement that the pioneers had poured under the front step of that building in 1890. It was about an eight-foot cube. My heart sank as I approached them. I thought they would never be able to move all that old cement. The foundations of the building were about two feet thick at the bottom and tapered up. They said even their big cats couldn't push that big block of cement out of the ground, but they would work at it and see what they could do. I left for school feeling very doubtful that we would ever be able to do it. I hurried right down to the church after school and got there just in time to see them lift the huge hunk of cement out of the ground with a big crane. They had gotten under the cement somehow with a large cable and were just starting to lift the cube when I got there. They settled it carefully on the bed of their biggest flatbed truck, and I thought the whole thing was going to sink right into the ground, but they hauled it away.

The next day they knocked the walls down with their big "cats" and then dug big trenches all around the foundation and pushed the foundations into the holes. When I got there after school they had the building level with the ground and were hauling off the material that would not compact into hole where the basement of the building had been. I thought they would leave us then, but they were back the next two days hauling gravel in to fill the hole and level the ground and compact it. On Friday we poured cement sidewalks around the building and on Saturday, Sumsions came back and laid black top on top of the gravel. So when the saints were coming to the church the next Sunday after their fast for the Lord to bless us with our problem they saw a nice new finished parking lot where the old building had been the Sunday before. One man told me that he had been gone all week and hadn't seen or heard what had happened during the week, and when he got to church that next Sunday and saw that nice parking lot he thought the angels form heaven had come down to help us with our problem. I told him that's almost the way it happened.

That night the Stake President called me on the telephone, because he had heard about what had happened, as we discussed it he asked how much money we still owed on the building. I told him $8000.00. He asked when we would be able to dedicate the building. I told him in two months. He asked how much money we had been paying back to the church on our loan, and I told him about $1000.00 a month. There was a pause on the line and finally he asked, "Well, how then are you going to raise $8000.00 in just two months. I said, " I don't know, but we'll do what we can and the Lord will bless us."

During the next two weeks the Bishopric worked every night and we called in every priesthood holder and sister in the ward including the Aaronic Priesthood and many young women and told each of them our situation and asked how much money they could contribute during the next six weeks as a final contribution to the building. In the next six weeks we had contributions that equaled nearly $10,000.00. Which was more than enough to pay for the building.

I was 33 years old and served as Bishop for nearly six years. I had the blessing of working with the fine saints in the First Ward. There were spiritual experiences that came into my life and the lives of my family nearly every day during those years. Joy assumed more responsibility in directing the activities of the family, but she never once complained about the added responsibility or the amount of time I was away from home. She supported me as much as it is possible for a wife to support her husband. She realized that the blessings we were receiving as a family were far greater than any sacrifice that we made.

After nearly six years as serving a Bishop, I was invited by the School District to go to Colorado State College and take some special training in working with children who were not achieving, as they should in school. I was released as Bishop one Sunday in June and the next day I left for Greeley, Colorado to attend school. We went to school the summers of 1966 through 1961 when I received my master's degree.

In 1967 I served as Stake President of the Sunday School. A calling I enjoyed very much. In 1968 I was called as a member of the Kolob Stake High Council and served in that capacity for the next two years. When President Strong was released as Stake President, his counselor, William J. Pratt was called to preside over the Stake, and President Pratt called me as his first counselor. I held that position for the next seven years.

My experiences with President Pratt in the Stake Presidency were some of the most challenging and yet the most satisfying of my life. President Pratt was a most positive individual. His positive attitude rubbed off on me and made for many pleasant and spiritual experiences. They were very satisfying years because we lived close to the Lord and because we firmly believed that the Lord was directing the things that we did, and we were only accomplishing the things the Lord wanted done in Kolob Stake.

Many times during those years the Lord revealed to us the things he wanted done. For example we recommended the call to the President of the Church of perhaps 10 or 12 men to serve as Bishops of their respective wards. In all of these callings there was never a time when we were not completely certain that the man we recommended was the man the Lord wanted to direct that ward at that particular time. To illustrate a specific example, I remember we had to call a new Bishop in one to the Mapleton Wards. President Pratt asked the executive secretary to prepare a list of all the members of the Melchizedek Priesthood who were full tithe payers. We spent several weeks in Presidency meeting discussing names on that list. No name seemed to be right. Finally Pres. Pratt said that the next Wednesday we would choose a Bishop for that ward. He asked his counselors to pray to the Lord during the next three days and find out from the Lord who He wanted to be Bishop of that ward. I prayed diligently during the next three days asking what the Lord's desire was. I felt very much impressed that a particular young man who had hardly even been mentioned in our discussions in presidency meetings because of his youth and his newness in the ward. When the presidency met on Wednesday and after sincere prayer President Pratt asked each of us to write the name of the new bishop on a piece of paper. It was his custom to do it this way. I was somewhat hesitant to write the name of the young man that I had been impressed with because we just had not given him serious consideration in our previous discussions. However, I wrote his name on the paper and handed it to the President. President Pratt looked at the papers, and the same name appeared on all three pieces of paper. I think the Lord gave His guidance on this occasion and on many other similar occasions that give me strength and increased testimony during those years as a member of the
Stake presidency.

One thing I spent a great deal of time doing during those years was preparing and giving talks in meetings. With a large stake like ours it seems we were called to speak nearly every week. This was a frightening and humbling experience, but when I was humble, prayerful and prepared myself, the Lord blessed me.

It seems that most of my assignments in the church have been with the youth. I have always enjoyed working with young people. Over the years I have been particularly active in scouting. I was for a number of years chairman of the Hobble Creek District in scouting, and I am at the present time (1983) Vice President of the Utah National Parks Council of the Boy Scouts of America.

In my professional career, I have spent my entire life teaching. I started out teaching English, reading, and speech in the Springville Junior High. We were in the old Junior High School building along with the High School on 400 south in Springville which has long since been torn down. I taught there two or three years until the new Junior High was built on 700 east and we moved into the new building. When the new High School was built, I moved to that school and taught a half-day there and a half-day at the Junior High. Years later when the Junior High was remodeled I designed a new room for resource students in that building and so I moved back to the Junior High full time.

I taught English, reading and speech from 1953 to1965. At that time I started setting up a new reading program for the school and at that time I started to teach developmental and corrective reading. The reading program I was teaching was a Federally funded program and when the funds were used up in 4 or 5 years, I moved into the regular Special education program where I have been teaching as a resource teacher ever since.

The teaching profession has been good to me over the years. Besides the satisfaction one gets from association with young people it has been a good environment in which to work. My associates and the faculty almost without exception have been people of the highest caliber, people who have had the same standards that I have had. The salary one gets as a teacher has always been less than I might have made in other professions, and it has been necessary for Joy to work all her life also. However, she has had a good job and it has been pleasant to be associated with her in the same school and the same department over the years.

My greatest happiness in life has come through my family associations. My oldest son Bret has always been a source of pleasure in my life. As the first child and being a boy, I probably spent more time with him than the other children. I have always been proud of him and the fine individual he has become. As he was growing up, mother and I spent many hours watching him play ball. I think he developed a sense of fare play, teamwork and most of all he learned to work hard and dedicate himself to a cause through all of his participation in athletics as he was growing up.

I have been proud of Bret and the decisions he has made throughout his life. We are so happy that he was willing and worthy to go on a mission, that he chose a fine wife and that they were married in the temple and that they have chosen to dedicate themselves to sharing honor to their priesthood and raising their children in the church. I love them dearly and constantly pray for their success in their work and in raising their children.

Our daughter Rebecca was the sweetest child that anyone could possibly hope to have come into their home. As a young child we always said Rebecca sees things out of beautiful eyes because everything in life was beautiful to her. She was always a very happy friendly child and a very beautiful little girl with long blonde naturally curly hair. I love her very much. It is my greatest desire that she can find the happiness that is available to her through directing her life in righteousness. She has had more frustrations in her life that I had hoped she would have, and I am looking forward to the time that she can know of the satisfaction and peace of mind one can get through living close to our Father in Heaven.

Kent has been a great source of joy in my life. Joy and I are so proud of his accomplishments so far in his life, and we pray that be may continue to be the outstanding person that I believe he has the ability to be. He is not only very intelligent but also very spiritual. He graduated from high school as the outstanding four-year scholar and gave an excellent talk at his graduation exercises. He's now in the mission field in Peru. Kent has never given us one minute of worry in his life so far. I feel that when the Lord gave us Kent to raise. He gave us one of' the truly choice spirits in all His heavenly kingdom.

My greatest blessing in life has been my dear wife Joy. I am so grateful for the years of love, devotion and loyalty that she has given to me. I have no greater desire in this life that to direct my life in such a way that I may be worthy to have her as my eternal companion.

I want all my family how living and those that may come after this particular point in time, that I love the Lord. I know the gospel of Jesus Christ is true, and it will be my hope that we can all live together as a family in the eternal kingdoms of our Father in Heaven.