The LDS Scene: A Round-up of Important Happenings

Richard Stanley Johns II succeeds Jay W. Mitton as executive secretary of the Sunday School general board. Brother Mitton has joined a Salt Lake City law firm but is continuing as a member of the board. Brother Johns currently serves as a member of the board and was the assistant executive secretary.

Oakley S. Evans succeeds Harold H. Bennett as president of ZCMI (Zion’s Cooperative Mercantile Institution). Brother Bennett is retiring after 46 years of service with ZCMI, which he joined as an accountant. Brother Evans has been a vice-president, director of corporate development, and member of the board of directors of the J. C. Penney Company. Founded by President Brigham Young in 1868, ZCMI is one of the United States’ oldest department stores.

Three Church educators have been named to administrative positions in Church schools in the Pacific. James William Harris is the new principal of Liahona High School in Nuku‘alofa, Tonga; Robert Rangiuaia is vice-principal of the Church College of New Zealand; and Tufuga Samuela Atoa will assume his duties as superintendent of LDS schools in Western Samoa in June.

The Church College of New Zealand’s boys basketball team has successfully retained the National Secondary Schools basketball championship crown. Three of the team’s students placed among the top ten players for all secondary schools in New Zealand.

Buck Nin, one of the top Maori artists in New Zealand and an art instructor at the Church College of New Zealand, was recently honored with a one-man show of his works in Hamilton, New Zealand.