“LDS Scene,” Ensign, July 1976, 78–79
LDS Scene
Brigham Young University and Ricks College have both announced major new fund-raising programs. BYU will be raising money for a new building to house the Graduate School of Management and the College of Business. Ricks has set a goal of $1,500,000 for its new practical agriculture program, which will include a landscaping nursery, horsemanship and stable management, farm management, and beef management.
President Ezra Taft Benson of the Council of the Twelve officiated April 28 when Elder L. Tom Perry of the Council of the Twelve was married in the Salt Lake Temple to Sister Barbara Drayton of Cokeville, Wyoming. Elder Perry’s first wife, Virginia, passed away December 14, 1974.
Richard Farthing of Richlands, Virginia, president of the Richlands Branch, has been named Citizen of the Year by the Richlands Area Chamber of Commerce for his outstanding civic service. Brother Farthing has served as president of the Lions Club and the Parent-Teachers Association, and has worked with the Boy Scouts, the Junior Chamber of Commerce, and the Richlands Recreation Commission. He and his wife, Bonnie, have five children.
Mike Johnson and Curt Brinkman, both psychology students at Brigham Young University, won nine medals at the western regionals in California for the Wheelchair Olympics, and both qualified for the nationals scheduled for June in New York. Brother Johnson, a highly decorated former Marine who lost his legs in Vietnam, qualified for the nationals in six events and came back with two first-place gold medals, two second-place silver medals, and two third-place bronze medals. Brother Brinkman, who lost his legs in an electrical accident on a farm in Idaho, qualified by winning a second place in the mile with a time of 6:47—his best time ever. He also won a silver medal in the 100-yard dash and two bronze medals in the javelin and the mile relay.
Dr. James A. Mason, member of the Church Music Committee and professor of music at Brigham Young University, has been elected president of the 65,000-member Music Educators National Conference (MENC). Brother Mason is the immediate past-president of the Western Division of MENC and has served on two of its special councils. Dr. A. Harold Goodman, chairman of the BYU Music Department and chairman of the Church Music Correlation executive committee, has been elected president of MENC’s Western Division. Gene Marlan of McLean, Virginia, acting executive secretary of the MENC, is also a Latter-day Saint.
Two trips to Washington, D.C., and a $1,000 research grant were won by Reed B. Markham, a Brigham Young University student from Provo, Utah, in two separate national contests. One trip and the grant were awarded Brother Markham as one of ten 1976 National Exploration Award winners for scientific research. His other trip was awarded for his winning entry in the Bicentennial USA slogan contest sponsored by the Washington Post.
Starting this year, National Family Week becomes an annual tradition in the United States with the signing of a joint resolution by President Gerald R. Ford. The resolution climaxed efforts spearheaded by Latter-day Saint representatives in Congress and led by LDS Congressman Del Clawson, Los Angeles, 33rd Congressional District of California. National Family Week will be observed November 21–27, the week of Thanksgiving.
Sister LaVern W. Parmley, general Primary president from 1951 through 1974, has received the Silver Buffalo Award, the highest award for volunteer service to youth by the Boy Scouts of America (BSA). The award citation states: “If there is a person, in or out of Scouting, who has had a direct effect on the lives of more children than yo,. the name does not spring to mind.” Sister Parmley, who initiated the Cub Scout program in the Church some twenty years ago, also has been honored over the years with the BSA’s Silver Fawn and Silver Antelope awards, and in 1973 she became the first woman to be named to the national Cub Scout committee.