Personal History of
Gerald Bingham
I was born on December 4, 1928 at
our house in Benjamin, Utah, in a bed that was set up in the living room. My younger brother, Jim, was also born there
on November 15, 1931. I remember being
at our neighbors and seeing my Dad walking down the road to get me after he was
born. I also remember seeing my Mom and
Jim lying in the bed when I got home. I
was almost 3 years old.
My father was Monroe Lee Bingham and
my mother was Priscilla Ludlow. I was
named after my great grandfather, Jeremiah (Jerry) Bingham.
My grandparents Alpheus Bingham and
Mary Ann Manwill moved from Payson to Benjamin in 1883 and my Ludlow
grandparents, Enoch Ludlow and Lavinia Horsefall came from England and settled
in Benjamin in 1879. They both tore up
sagebrush and started farming and raising sheep. The Bingham’s on the west side of Benjamin
and the Ludlow’s on the east side.
My great grandparents, Jeremiah
Bingham and Susan Keele lived in Payson, Utah, three miles south of
Benjamin. My great grandparents, Nathaniel
Ludlow and Mary Ann Niblett came to
Benjamin with my Grandpa and two or three of his brothers.
The house where I was born and
raised consisted of four rooms downstairs (kitchen, dining room, living room
and 1 bedroom for my parents. Between the
kitchen and the bedroom was a large closet and stairway to the 2nd
floor. A wood floor ran from the top of
the stairs, east end to the west end. My
sister, Lavinia (Vin), had a room divided by a curtain on the west end and Jim,
Alph, Blaine and I slept on the eastern 2/3 of the upstairs. There were no walls and beyond the flooring
on the north and south were floor joists and the ceiling of the four downstairs
rooms. We did not have a bathroom in the
house until about 1944 when I was in high school. We did put a sink and running water in the
kitchen in about 1941. We had
electricity put in before I was born. No
telephone at all. If we had to make a
call, there was a pay phone in the general store about ½ mile south of our
house.
My mother had a Singer Sewing Machine
that had a foot treadle to make it run.
We loved to play around it.
Hanging on a wall in our dining room was a leather wall hanging. It was about 6” wide and 12” long. The following was printed on it.
M
is for the million things she gave me
O
means only that she’s growing old
T
is for the tears she shed to save me
H
is for her heart of purest gold
E
is for her eyes with love light shining.
R
means right and right she will always be.
Put
them all together they spell MOTHER. A word
that means the world to me.
My earliest childhood memory was
when my brother was born. When 4 or 5
years old and the day before Mother’s Day I felt bad because I did not have
anything to give to my mother. My sister
took me up in the field and helped me pick a few stems of white top (a weed
with white seed pods on its top). She
then helped me get a glass fruit jar for water and I gave the bouquet to my
mother. I also remember when about 4
years old, the husband of my mother’s best friend and cousin was killed in a
motorcycle accident. He was a highway
patrolman and just as it was getting dark he ran into the back of a hay wagon
while on his motorcycle. I went to their
house with my mom and dad before the funeral and remember him lying in his
casket and didn’t think he had any legs.
Dad was strict, honest, a hard
worker. He would let our crops go to
help neighbors in need. When we hauled
hay or bundles of grain, he wanted the sides of the load straight and
tall. The same applied to the hay and
straw stacks in our yard. He always told
us to do more work than we were being paid for when working for someone else
and that if we did we would always be able to get a job. I have found that to be true. I have always been able to get a job and have
given my own kids the same advice. Dad
also loved to held his grandkids and rock them in the rocking chair.
Mom was gentle, spiritual, a peace
maker, easy to talk to, a friend and good listener. She was also a very good wife, mother and
person. She taught me the importance of
being kind and gentle. She also was a
hard worker. Both parents taught me to
serve others. I love and respect my
mother and father.
I enjoyed playing monopoly and card
games with family and some friends on winter days and nights. We had contests rolling worn-out auto tires
with a stick. Ice skating, skiing behind
a horse, softball, basketball, rubber guns and swimming in an irrigation ditch
were also games we played. We had a pole
fence around our corral and we would see who could walk on the top poles the
longest. We even had names for poles
(shaky, wobbly, etc.) We had track meets
with a few friends (high jump, pole vault, shot put; javelin and races) For
Christmas I received a tricycle when I was very young and later a pony and a
bicycle. The three younger boys, Alph,
Jim and I wanted a bicycle for Christmas, but Santa couldn’t afford one so the
three of us pooled our money amounting to about $12 and gave to Santa and we
got the bicycle.
I loved going to the movies;
however, we didn’t have money to go very often even though it only cost 10
cents. We also had a commercial swimming
pool, Arrowhead Resort. In Benjamin a
family season pass was about $18 for the family for the summer.
We had chores every night and
morning. We milked 3 cows, cleaned the
milking stalls, put fresh straw on floor of sleeping stalls and in the corral
where the animals slept. We had horses,
milk cows, pigs, 200 or 300 sheep and 400 or 500 chickens that had to be fed
morning and night. The sheep were sent
to Strawberry for the summer and to the Delta Desert for the winter. We fed them at home in the spring while they
had their lambs. My mother pretty much
took care of the chickens, feeding them and gathering the eggs. Every Saturday we had to clean all the straw
and droppings out of the two large chicken coops (20 x 50 ft) and put fraesh
straw down. We did our chores when we
first got up, before breakfast which usually consisted of oatmeal, bacon or ham
and eggs. We ate big meals as we worked
hard. My least favorite chore was
cleaning out the chicken coops. We had
big hay and straw stacks. No one bailed
hay or straw until after World War II.
We had a grade school in Benjamin, 1st
through 8th grades but no kindergarten. We rode the bus to 9th grade at
Spanish Fork Junior High School and 10th through 12th
grades at Spanish Fork High School. We
also took one hour of seminary while in high school and it was scheduled
throughout school hours just like any other subject. I liked school and did pretty good in all
areas. My favorite subject was math and
the one I liked least was English. I
wish I would have spent more time on English.
I especially enjoyed high school.
Even though World War II was going on during some of my school years, I
still had a fun time. I graduated from
seminary and high school in May 1947. I
started college at BYU in the fall of 1947.
There were only about 5,000 students enrolled at BYU at that time and
many were war veterans so there was a shortage of girls with about 60% men and
40% girls. I enjoyed college very
much. I shared an apartment my first
year with my brother, Alph, and cousins, Enoch and Lester Ludlow from Spanish
Fork. During my sophomore and junior years
I roomed with Alph and two of my best friends, Paul Stewart and Ray Ludlow from
Benjamin. (They were ahead of me in
school graduating a year earlier from high school and then enlisted in the
Marine Corp. for two years.) Part of our
college classes were on the lower campus in the library located at 5th
North and University Ave. The upper
campus consisted of four buildings, Heber J. Grant, Brimhall, Masier and Joseph
Smith building on the southwest corner of the present BYU campus. I had completed three years, majoring in
accounting when the Korean War started in late June 1950. I was at the top of the draft list so I
enlisted for four years in the US Air Force.
I suppose I could have gotten a deferment to finish college but I felt that
I wanted to enlist and serve our country as so many from Benjamin had
done. I was discharged from the Air
Force in early August 1954. I then
enrolled at BYU, changed my major to marketing with a minor in accounting and
graduated with a bachelor’s degree in May of 1955. I enjoyed all of my school years and am
grateful for the opportunity I had to get a decent education. I have used the marketing and accounting
knowledge throughout my life…..in my business ventures, various jobs, in my
church callings and as a husband, father and grandfather.
During grade school we played
softball and various other games as well as marbles. We played where the winner won the loser’s
marble and I won more than I lost. In 7th
and 8th grade we played softball with Lakeshore School (neighboring
town) about four times each spring where I usually played 2nd base. We walked to this school which was about two
miles away. Sometimes I would not get
home at the time I was to start my chores and would be in a little
trouble. But no matter what time I got
home from my school days I had chores to do.
I had one of the leads in an
operetta when I was in 8th grade and also 9th grade. In high school I played football, basketball
and was on the track team. During my
junior and senior year I was on the varsity team. As a junior I took 5th place in
the Pole Vault competition at the state track meet. I tore the cartilage in my left knee playing
football when I was a senior and that hampered my participation as I could not
be as aggressive as I needed to be. I
should have had my knee surgically repaired but the doctors at that time
thought it would heal on its own. I
served on the student council at Spanish Fork High School during my sophomore
and junior years. I ran for student body
president but did not win. However, I
was president of the seminary during my senior year.
We didn’t have enough money, nor did
anyone else to think about fads. We
mostly just wore jeans (we called them Levi’s) and the girls wore dresses or
skirts with blouses or sweaters. Most
boys would get crew cuts in the spring and keep it short throughout the
summer. When I was younger a few of the
older boys got Mohawks. My dad cut my
hair with hand clippers when I was young, but he let us start going to the
barber when we were in junior high and high school.
I guess that my dad and older
brothers were my heroes and, of course, we had great respect for the prophets,
Heber J. Grant and George Albert Smith.
After Pearl Harbor, my heros were the men and women that served in the
military. From our little town of
Benjamin (population of about 500) there were over fifty men and one woman that
served in the military during World War II.
When I became old enough to have a
lot of interest in music, most of the songs were about the war, soldiers,
leaving wives, family and sweethearts.
The music was good and the words told a story. I still enjoy listening to and singing the
songs of the 1940’s and 1950’s.
I suppose all of the farm animals were
pets but when I was very young we had a black and white dog named Tip. He was the closest I had as a pet. He was very protective of all the children in
the family and many times fought with a German Shepherd that would come by our
house with his owner. Tip could hold his
own and the men and my older brothers would have a hard time separating the
dogs. A couple of times matches would be
lite and held near the dogs mouths to make them let go of each other. Tip died when I was about 10 years old and
then we got a gold and white, part Collie which my dad named Gabe
When I was about 9 or 10 we woke up
on Christmas morning and were excited about what we might find under our
Christmas tree. We usually only got one
thing from our parents and Santa Claus and not too much more. On
this particular morning my dad kept trying to get my two brothers, Alph and Jim
and I to go outside to the bathroom but we kept delaying so he finally made us
get ready and go out to milk the cows and feed the animals. When we went out the back door we found a
black pony tied to the fence. We were so
excited to have our own pony. We named
him Smokey and for years we enjoyed riding him.
In the little town of Benjamin,
everyone was a Mormon except two families of Greeks and two other families
where the father was not a Mormon but eventually they both joined the
church. We attended church
regularly. Priesthood meeting was a 9
a.m., Sunday school was 10:30 a.m. to 12 noon and Sacrament meeting was at 7
p.m. Primary and Relief Society were
held on Tuesday afternoon. I served as
Bishop of the California Lodi 2 Ward from October 1977 until May 1984. During that time church meetings on Sunday
were changed to the 3-block schedule we now use.
My oldest and best friend was Paul
Stewart. Paul was born on October 28, 1928
and was a grade ahead of me all through our school days. The cut-off date for starting school was
November 1st. It was to my advantage to
be one of the oldest in my class.
However, the day Paul started school, I also went and hid across the
street from the school and watched Paul and all the other kids enter the
schoolhouse. I felt very sad and was
envious. Paul’s father owned the farm
across the street from our house and his home was about ¼ mile south of our
house. Paul and I remained good friends
our entire life. Paul passed away in
October 2008. I visited him in the
hospital in Modesto, California about 3 weeks before he died and he asked me to
speak at his funeral and to talk about what it was like growing up during the
Great Depression, living on a farm, and teenagers during World War II. Also, how hard we had to work, how poor we
were, but we didn’t know we were poor.
So, I did that, covering the period from the time he was about 3 years
old through his graduation from BYU in 1952.
I was also close friends with Ray Ludlow (a cousin), and George Jay
(Fritz) Parkinson. Some more friends
were Clifford Clark, Norman Lundell and Henry Angus. I liked all the kids I went to school with.
As I mentioned earlier, the Great
Depression of the 1920’s and 1930’s and World War II were the most significant
world events during my growing up years.
Both of these events affected everyone.
First, the depression. Money was
extremely scarce. I remember when my
older brother, Alph, wanted 25 cents to go to the high school dance. Mom nor Dad had any money. We searched the house going through the
pockets of every piece of clothing and somehow we found the 25 cents. We had three milk cows and sold the milk to
the creamery and had 300 to 400 chickens and sold the eggs to the poultry
cooperative. These two methods produced
a little cash for things we needed tp buy.
My mom also took the cream off the top of the milk we kept for our own
use and made butter which we sold to Parkinson’s General Store in Benjamin to
buy things we did not produce on the farm.
We ate all meals together as a
family. My mother (a wonderful woman)
cooked all of our meals on a coal burning stove. We kids got up and did all our our chores
(milking & feeding animals) immediately after we got up. Then got ready for school and ate breakfast
together. We had ham or bacon, eggs,
toast and cereal, usually oatmeal. We
called the noon meal dinner and the evening meal supper. For dinner, our biggest meal, we had steak,
hamburger, roast, pork chops, etc. along with potatoes, and gravy and
vegetables. Our evening meal was similar
to the noon meal or we might have had potato, vegetable or tomato soup,
spaghetti, meatloaf and mom’s homemade bread.
She baked seven loaves of bread three or four days a week. It was great to be able to eat some just as
mom took it out of the oven. When we
came home from school at 3 or 4 in the afternoon, we would fry a piece of meat
or eat 3 or 4 eggs to tie us over while we did out chores and got ready for
supper. We ate very well.
My recollections of the effects and
feelings during World War II expressed in an interview by David Bingham (May
1999) while I was serving with Mary as missionaries in the Philippines Manila
Mission. Interview by Courtney Bingham,
May 2005….My service in the U.S. Air Force and thoughts about World War II.
I graduated from Brigham Young
University in 1955. My friend, Paul
Stewart, got me a job at Fibre Board Paper Products in South Gate, California,
south of Los Angeles, in the accounting dept.
I worked there from l955 until about 1961. My starting salary in 1955 was $300 per
month. I thought I was the richest
person around.
The very best thing that ever
happened to me occurred during this time.
I went to a wedding reception dinner for the groom, John Nugent, a
friend from Fibreboard. A friend of the
bride, Mary Van Dell was also there. We
became acquainted and I was lucky enough to be able to drive her home after the
dinner. I thought she was very nice,
beautiful and someone very special (which she is.) We started dating and on March 9, 1957 we
were married at the Chapel of the Roses in Pasadena, California. Mary was not a member of the church, but
during our many long talks, I discovered that her standards and beliefs were
similar to mine and after my mother met her, she said, “Jerry, don’t worry, Mary
will become a strong faithful member of the church” which has proven to be very
true.
During the
first year of our marriage we lived in a one bedroom apartment in Huntington
Park, California.
Mary worked for an insurance agent,
Charles L. Arthur, in Pasadena. After we
were married and she had to move, she worked for Norris Thermador as a
secretary to the Assisting Purchasing Agent.
We set a budget and lived on my salary which had probably increased to
maybe $330 a month and saved Mary’s salary.
Besides rent, our biggest expense was a 1955 Chevrolet, Bel Air which I
bought brand new when I came to California.
In the spring of 1958 we purchased our first home with our savings as a
down payment which was located at 9534 Pritchard St., Bellflower, Ca. The house had three bedrooms, living/dining
room, small laundry room and 1 and ½ baths.
We turned one of the bedrooms into a family room. We got all of this for the purchase price of
$11,800. We were concerned about this
debt and the huge house payment of about $91 a month.
(In 1946 my
brother Blaine came home from World War II and purchased a farm next to my
dad’s for $8,000. This was for forty
acres, a house, barn, cement cylow and other out buildings.)
As a young boy I had to work hard on
the farm as there were always many things to do. My dad also told us boys to always do a
little more work than we were being paid for.
I worked for local farmers when my dad could spare me. When I turned 16, I was able to work at the
Del Monte Canning Factory in Spanish Fork during the summer. I was assigned to work in the warehouse,
labeling and boxing cans of peas, lima beans and tomatoes. The warehouse manager told Ray Ludlow (my friend) that since we were
only 16, we could only work 8 hours a day but since we were good workers, if we
wanted to work more he would pay us for stocking cans of vegetables in huge
bins that would then be boxed and labeled during the winter. We were paid by piece work, 65 cents to stock
1000 cans and could work as long as the factory was open each day. We were very agreeable and worked 12 to 14
hours a day Monday through Saturday.
Some of the cans were still hot from the ovens but we worked hard and
after the 2nd week we earned about $165 each week. The plant superintendent brought our checks
to us and congratulated us.
During the first 3 years of college
at BYU I worked in the bookstore for 65 cents per hour. During the summer
months in 1948, I worked for a dynamite manufacturer at the mouth of Spanish
Fork Canyon. The odor from the nitro
glycerin made me very sick for the first week but after that my body got used
to it. I was assigned to a partner to
train me. There were only two men per
building and each building was barricaded with a small railroad running in
front. One day a man ran past our
building yelling, “It is going to blow.”
We left our machines running and out the door we ran. We tried to get over a hill a hundred years
away but just got to the top and the building where nitro glycerin was mixed
blew up. Motors and equipment flew into
the air and the whole building was destroyed.
The shock wave went over our heads so we didn’t feel the explosion. Fortunately, only the one building blew up
and no one was hurt.
In 1960, Mary’s father arranged for
me to become a franchised Snap-on Tools Dealer.
(He was the Western Regional Manager.)
I bought a 14 ft delivery van and that was my office, delivery van and
warehouse. I had an inventory worth
about $8,000 of all types of mechanical tools and equipment. My area was Paramount and North Long Beach,
California. I called on all the repair
garages, service stations and anyone lse that used tools including auto
dealerships and the Long Beach airport.
In 1963 I was promoted to Field
Manager and transferred to Northern California.
Mary &I purchased a home in Pleasant Hill (803 Hamilton Dr.) and I
hired, trained and worked with 12 Snap-on dealers. My area included Contra Costa County,
Sacramento, Woodland and San Rafael north to Brookings, Oregon along the
coast. I learned a lot about business,
leadership and handling complaints. My
marketing and accounting training was very helpful. I did not like being away from home and
family and neither did Mary and the kids.
Sometimes I would spend a week or two away when I was in the Eureka, Ca.
or Brooking OR. area.
In 1959 we accepted an opportunity
to open a Dahnken Catalog Showroom in Fresno, CA. It was a discount store that published a
catalog and sold jewelry, giftware, housewares, electronics and sporting goods
at a good discount. We went into a
partnership with Mary’s father. At that
time we sold our home in Pleasant Hill and had a home built at 2139 San Bruno
St. in north Fresno. We opened the
Dahnken store in the fall of 1969.
By 1969 Mary’s father had retired
and moved to Fresno. After several years
of working together we decided it would be to both of our advantage to have two
stores, each of us owning one independent of each other. We sold our share of the Fresno store to
Mary’s dad and opened our own store in Stockton, CA. We had a home built in Lodi, CA. just north
of Stockton. This was a real blessing in
our lives and the lives of our children.
We lived in Lodi at 309 Shady Acres Dr., from 1972 until 2001 when we
moved to our present home at 648 E. Windsor Ct., Alpine, Utah. That move also turned out to be a real
blessing to us.
In about 1980 we, along with 8 other
store owners, broke away from the Dahnken group and changed the name of the
store to Bingham’s. In 1984 several
large discount stores started opening and were a real challenge for the small
independent stores. We decided it best
to close our store and went into another adventure, purchasing Lodi Sick Room
Supply. We sold and rented all types of
durable medical supplies and equipment for use at home. We successfully operated this business until
we sold It and retired in 1996.
Our oldest child, Janet Louise was
born May 18, 1959 in Downey, CA. A neighboring
city to Bellflower. She was and is a
wonderful daughter that we have enjoyed watching develop into a very special
daughter, wife and mother. Michael, our
oldest son was born on April 10, 1962, also in Downey, CA. He, like Janet, brought us great joy and has
become an exceptional son, husband and father.
Paul, our youngest child was born on June 16, 1966 in San Francisco, CA.
while we were living in Pleasant Hill, CA.
Paul, like his siblings has accomplished many special things in his life
and has also become a very special son, excellent husband and father. We enjoyed every phase of our children’s
lives from infancy to their becoming grandparents. It bothers both Mary and me when parents
refer to their children’s teenage years as the terrible teens.
As mentioned earlier, Mary and I met
in 1956. I think early in our
relationship we both felt like we had met the special one that we wanted to
spend our life with and then be eternal companions.
Mary was not a member of our church
but she was such a good and wonderful person that we still felt we were right
for each other. We had many long talks
about religion (our church) and life, about our goals and dreams. I felt she would join the church and that we would
become an eternal family. She had not
known anyone that was a Mormon before meeting me.
After I got to know her family and
they got to know me, I think they approved of me and our standards. Her father did tell someone that I would
probably keep her barefoot and pregnant, living in the hills somewhere. Her family had never attended church nor had
religious discussions but they were a good family and all of them had high
standards and were good people.
My testimony and experiences in the
church have been very special to me throughout my life. I was very involved in the church until I was
about 19. At that time for some reason I
kind of quit going regularly; however, I never doubted that the church was
true. It just wasn’t the priority that
it should have been. I never got
completely active and involved until after Mary was baptized on 1 April 1967 in
Walnut Creek, CA and has been a strong and faithful member ever since. I suppose I can say she and the children got
me actively involved. I loved her so
very much and also had a great love for Janet, Michael and Paul that I wanted
to prepare myself to take my family to the temple where we could be sealed
together as a family unit for all time and eternity. Our sealing in the temple occurred on 29 July
1972 in the Oakland, CA. Temple. What a
wonderful day that was and I have never been as happy as when I knelt across
that holy alter from Mary while we were sealed as husband and wife and then the
children were brought into the room and knelt with us as we became an eternal
family. That was the most important day
of my life. Our children looked like
angels.
Mary and I have had many special and
very spiritual experiences as members of the church and during various
positions and callings we have had over the many years.
I have had the opportunity to serve
as Sunday School Superintendent , Assistant Ward Clerk, Ward Clerk, 2nd
Counselor in a bishopric, high councilman (3 times), bishop of the CA. Lodi 2nd
ward for 6-1/2 years, 2nd counselor in the CA Lodi Stake Presidency,
and Stake President CA Lodi Stake for 9-1/2 years, stake auditor, chairman of
Public Affairs for the Lodi Stake, temple ordinance worker at the Oakland
Temple, ward employment specialists, chairman of stake emergency preparedness
Council, chairman of Temple Council, teacher and teacher coordinator for the
High Priest Group and a full time missionary.
For 18 months I served with my wonderful wife in the Philippines Manila
Mission from August 1998 to February 2000.
Our wonderful experience on our mission taught me so much and helped me
to grow and to become a better person.
I have many of the interesting and
valuable experiences and will relate a few here:
I was called
as Bishop on October 9, 1977 by Pres. Robert G. Wade, President of the CA>
Lodi Stake. I very much enjoyed serving
as bishop although it could be difficult at times but the positive experiences
made it very fulfilling. I loved being
so involved with the youth. We worked
hard to develop a strong youth program.
During the many years that I was bishop, Mary was the Ward or Stake
Young Women’s President. This enabled us
to work together very closely. I feel we
had a strong and successful youth program.
In February 1979 eight perspective
elders were ordained to the priesthood and it was a very spiritual occasion as
each of them bore their testimonies which caused my emotions to surface and
tears of joy streamed down my face. I
can only remember the names of six men…..Jim Smith, Jim Mason, Don Runge, Gary
Neuvert, Charles Fischer and Buss Fleming.
In 1779, even as bishop, I still
wondered if I would ever be good enough to qualify for the Celestial Kingdom
and gain eternal life. One Sunday,
during priesthood I was meeting with the Priest Quorum which our son, Michael,
was a member. We were reading in Moroni,
7:47…….”but charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth forever; and
whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with
him.” That scripture really hit me hard
and I thought that I can have charity and be a good person. From that time I have been at peace, knowing
that I have made mistakes and would continue to do so, but I could be
charitable and repent of my mistakes.
What a blessing that has been for me.
Gary Neuvert, Ray Haggard and myself
went with the Teachers Quorum on a super activity to Alaska. Our son, Paul, was a member of the
quorum. They did many fund raising
projects and earned enough to pay all expenses.
We drove from Lodi to Canada and then drove the Alcan Highway to Anchorage.
We did a 7-day backpack-canoe trip down the Kenai Peninsula. We had a wonderful time, saw some beautiful
areas and it was a special time to get close to and know these young men. I particularly enjoyed that special time with
Paul.
In November 1984 I was called as 2nd
counselor to Robert G. Wade and in May 1986 I was called as the stake
president. Elder John K. Carmack of the
Quorum of the Seventy extended the call.
An interesting note is that Elder Carmack asked me and Mary to pray
together and come up with the names we recommended as counselors. I enjoyed the 9-1/2 years and it was special
to get to know the members from the whole stake. The following wards were included in the Lodi
Stake…..Galt, Ione, Jackson, Lodi 1, Lodi 2, Lodi,3, San Andreas and the
Murphys Branch. We covered a large
geographical area. Murphys Branch was
about 50 miles east of Lodi. Jackson and
San Andreas were about 40 miles. Ione about 30 and Galt about 10 miles.
As bishop I was very involved with
every member of my ward while as stake president I worked more closely with the
leaders of the wards and the individuals only on special occasions. However, I worked hard to develop a
relationship and get to know all the stake members, especially the youth.
We held stake conference twice a
year and usually had a general authority visit and preside once a year. The visiting authority stayed at our home on
Saturday evening. We were priviledged to
have the following stay in our home:
Elders John H. Groberg, Lance B. Wickman, Robert D. Hales, Glenn L.
Pace, Ted Brewerton and Gene R. Cook.
Those that stayed elsewhere were John K. Carmack, Kree L. Kofford, Keith
Hilbig. Mary and I enjoyed these visits
with these good spiritual men very much although they were stressful for
Mary. Two regional conferences were held
while I was president. At the first one Elders
Howard W. Hunter, Russell M. Nelson, John K. Carmack were in attendance. Pres. Thomas S. Monson, Henry B. Eyring Jack
H. Goaslind were the visiting authority for the second one. It was special to meet with these brethren in
a leadership meeting with other stake presidents and to feel of their
spirit. How I loved these men and the
goodness I felt just being around them.
I also had the opportunity to
dedicate the new Lodi Stake Center at 1510 W. Century Blvd., Lodi, CA and the Murphys
building, 400 Bret Harte Rd., Murphys, CA.
We again worked very hard to have a
strong youth program at the stake level and overall we accomplished this. I believe it is important to have both fun
and spiritual activities and service projects for the young people. We have to keep the youth active and involved
so that we have the opportunity to help strengthen them spiritually.
Mary and I greatly enjoyed serving
in the CA. Oakland Temple. It was a
blessing to spend so much time in the temple and work with such wonderful,
dedicated members.
We were called to serve a leadership
mission in the Manila Philippines Mission from August 1998 until February
2000. This was a wonderful 18
months. It was very hard to leave our
children and grandchildren, but it was one of the truly special times in our
lives. We made many wonderful friends
while there. They are such loving,
humble and spiritual people. We were
assigned to the Cavite area, which is about 60 miles south of Manila. We were to help strengthen the 21 branches,
particularly the leadership with emphasis on the youth. Our mission baptized approximately 3,000 new
members a year. With so many new members
there was a great need for leadership training.
We hope we helped train and develop many future leaders to guide those
special people.
I have had the privilege to meet and
shake hands with the following prophets:
David O. McKay, Ezra Taft Benson, Howard W. Hunter, Gordon B. Hinckley
and Thomas S. Monson.
In closing this history, I want my
children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren to know that my desire is that
when we assemble in the next world there will be no empty chairs. I love the Lord and can say that I don’t just
believe but I know that through the atonement of Jesus Christ it is possible
for everyone of us to repent of our mistakes, live righteously and return to
God and be together throughout eternity.
I love you all.
January 23, 2011
