33. Our Ward's Fortieth Anniversary

A final bishopric message written for the April 2001 issue of the Bountiful Twentieth Ward Newsette. Two months later—on Sunday afternoon, June 10, 2001, I was released as the eighth bishop of the Bountiful 20th Ward, Hyde Frederickson as first counselor, and Lionel Farr as second counselor. Hyde Frederickson was sustained as the ninth bishop of the ward with Keith Riley and Trevor Austin as counselors.

Forty years ago this month—on Sunday, April 30, 1961—the Bountiful Twentieth Ward was created with Jack White as the new bishop. Three months earlier John F. Kennedy had become president of the United States. David O. McKay was president of the Church. George D. Clyde was the governor of Utah. Bountiful, according to the 1960 census, had a population of 17,039 (compared to 41,301 in the 2000 census).

Four months later—in August 1961—the Soviet Union began building the Berlin Wall, that enduring symbol of the Cold War. At the October conference the Church announced that all its programs were to be correlated through the priesthood to strengthen the family and the individual. A significant shift. It would be nearly a year later before John Glenn in February 1962 would become the first American to orbit the earth. Vietnam had not yet entered into the national consciousness, the Beatles were unheard of, and the social upheavals of the late 60s were still years away.

The priesthood brethren of this new ward still did ward teaching (home teaching wouldn’t be introduced until nearly three years later). The reemphasis on family home evening was nearly four years away. Stake conferences—morning and afternoon sessions—were still held four times a year. General conferences in April and October lasted three days each. And there was a June conference for the Mutual Improvement Associations. And road shows and dance festivals and all-Church tournaments and Gold and Green Balls.

The children (and there were a lot of them in those days) went to Primary on a weekday afternoon, the sisters to Relief Society on a weekday morning, not on Sundays as we do now (the revised schedule wouldn’t consolidate meetings into a single three-hour Sunday block until 1980).

We still subscribed to The Improvement Era and The Relief Society Magazine and The Children’s Friend. And paid for our own building projects and raised ward budgets and held Relief Society bazaars.

Eight bishops presided over the ward during these four decades:
- Jack White (1961–1967)
- Keith Beazer (1967–1972)
- Glen Taylor (1972–1977)
- Don West (1977–1980)
- Jay Anderson (1980–1985)
- Delbert Strasser (1985–1991)
- Gail Anger (1991–1996)
- And now Dean Cleverly (1996–present)

We have seen a lot of change these past forty years: The Church has grown and matured. Man walked on the moon. The Cold War ended. Iron curtains fell. Presidents and prophets have come and gone. The economy flourished. Our society and culture changed. Computers and the Internet and other manifestations of technology became such a part of our lives. There were comings and goings. Births and missions and marriages and deaths. A new century and millennium dawned. And through it all we are reminded, “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven” (Ecclesiastes 3:1).

And yet there have been constants too: Our community is still a peaceful haven where families keep struggling with the enduring problems of life, neighbors keep caring and serving, children keep learning and growing, the fruits of the Spirit are still evident, and the love of God is still manifest. And through it all we are reminded, “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man” (Ecclesiastes 12:13).