President Monson Honors George Romney, Receives Award

Brigham Young University recently renamed its 30-year-old Institute of Public Management after George W. Romney, a Church member who served as governor of Michigan, a U.S. Cabinet member, and head of the American Motor Company before passing away in 1995. President Thomas S. Monson, First Counselor in the First Presidency, and Elder David B. Haight of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles spoke at a dinner on 14 April in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building in Salt Lake City. The event was attended by President James E. Faust, Second Counselor in the First Presidency; Elders M. Russell Ballard and Henry B. Eyring of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles; and Elders Merrill J. Bateman, Loren C. Dunn, and Hugh W. Pinnock of the Seventy. Elder Bateman serves as president of BYU.

Calling Brother Romney a “great American,” President Monson said, “This man, George W. Romney, whom we honor tonight, was sustained by God, for God loved him so, and he loved his Heavenly Father.”

“George Romney, as we will read in the history of the 20th century, made a great contribution in bringing the Church out of obscurity and out of darkness,” said Elder Haight, who was a childhood friend of Brother Romney. “The way he lived, the way he honored the priesthood, and the way he honored what he believed in, all of that helped magnify.”

At a 22 April award program honoring President Monson and his wife, Frances, for their community service, President Monson said, “I feel I’m among friends.” He received the Continuum of Caring Humanitarian Award from a Catholic health-care facility in Salt Lake City.

“My belief in life is that our aim is to eliminate the weakness of one man or woman serving alone and substitute the strength of many serving together,” said President Monson in his remarks.

The Rev. George Niederauer, Catholic bishop of the Salt Lake diocese, said the Monsons are “the personification of human faces of concern and love and outreach to the entire community here in Salt Lake, here in Utah, and around the world.” He commented that President Monson “was one of the first and one of the most heartfelt of my welcomers here in Utah over three years ago.”

Left to right: The Rev. George Niederauer, Sister M. Aloysius Mannion, President Monson, Frances Monson. (Photo by Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News.)