“LDS Scene,” Ensign, Aug. 1977, 78
LDS Scene
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, which develops water projects throughout the country, is now headed by R. Keith Higginson, former high councilor in the Boise Idaho North Stake and former bishop of the Boise Sixteenth Ward.
Luckily no one was injured, but the entire South Africa Johannesburg Mission home was destroyed by fire. Six missionaries and President and Sister E. Dale LeBaron lost all their belongings in the fire, which was probably caused by faulty wiring.
BYU students Curt Brinkman and Mike Johnson both qualified for a later national competition by doing well in the Pacific Coast games sponsored by the Wheelchair Athletic Association. Johnson, who took first or second in every event he entered, qualified for the nationals in javelin, slalom, ping-pong, and the hundred-yard dash; Brinkman qualified for the mile with a time of 5:50, and had the best hundred-yard dash record in the meet, with a time of 18.9 seconds. And when they got to the nationals in San Jose, California, Johnson won two gold medals (javelin and slalom) and Brinkman won two bronze medals (hundred-yard dash and mile).
The new executive secretary to the Council of the Twelve is Rulon G. Craven, for the past three years director of the Aaronic Priesthood Committee. He succeeds Elder James M. Paramore, who was recently called to the First Quorum of the Seventy.
Regional Representative Bryant W. Rossiter will head the U.S. delegation at the 43-nation conference of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry, to be held in Warsaw, Poland, 14–21 August 1977. As chairman of the American delegation, he will address the convention.
Two Latter-day Saints have been selected as White House Fellows: Jim Jardine, a lawyer from Salt Lake City, and Bob King, assistant director of research for Radio Free Europe in Munich, Germany. Both have recently served as branch presidents for the Church, and Brother King has also been a district president. They and twelve other appointees will be assigned to work for one year with a cabinet member or an agency head in Washington, D.C.
President Spencer W. Kimball was honored with the Golden Plate Award by the American Academy of Achievement in its annual Salute to Excellence in Orlando, Florida. Others honored at the same time were baseball record-holder Hank Aaron, Roots author Alex Haley, Lt. Gen. James H. Doolittle, famed for daring air raids during World War II, and Nobel laureate Dr. Samuel C. C. Ting.
McCammon, Idaho, wasted no time answering a call for help: Sister Thelma Dopp, a resident of the town for thirty years, was stricken with cancer of the liver. Her husband had been unable to work for many years because of ill health, and she herself, though long employed as a nurse, was recently not able to work because of a heart attack. As income ran out, neighbors stepped in. With bake sales, a walk-a-thon, a carnival and bazaar, a dance, and simple donations, the community of 700 people raised thousands of dollars on June 3, “Thelma Dopp Day,” in McCammon. Her illness was terminal, however, and she passed away; but the community’s concern and generosity also helped meet funeral expenses.