Graduating students to hear music in lieu of spoken word
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In place of a traditional commencement address, the Tabernacle Choir will sing for graduating students at the June 9 commencement of Weber State College here, capping the college's year-long centennial.
President Gordon B. Hinckley, first counselor in the First Presidency, will represent the Church in receiving a founder's award from the college. The award is in recognition that the school was founded by the Church in 1889 as Weber Stake Academy. Ownership was later transferred to the state of Utah.President Hinckley will receive the award from Stephen D. Nadauld, college president, after which the choir will sing "God Bless America," according to Dean Hurst, assistant to the president of Weber State.
After the awarding of honorary degrees, the choir will sing several numbers, occupying the time that would normally be filled by a commencement speaker, Hurst said.
He noted that assistant choir director Donald H. Ripplinger and choir announcer J. Spencer Kinard are both alumni of the college. In fact, he added, Ripplinger was student body president in 1950-51.
The original plan, Hurst said, was to have the choir perform at last year's commencement, kicking off the centennial. But the choir could not perform then because of its tour of the South Pacific. So the appearance was scheduled for this year instead, capping the centennial.
The commencement will be at 6 p.m. in the Dee Events Center on the campus.
