Building to further study of the family
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PROVO, Utah — Several Church leaders gathered on the BYU campus May 16 to pay tribute to the Church's sixth president and break ground for a new building named in his honor.
"Joseph F. Smith truly was a pioneer, not only in his trek across the plains, but also in setting the standard of love and of how we might follow the pathway to eternal life," said President Thomas S. Monson, who presided at the groundbreaking ceremony for BYU's new Joseph F. Smith Building. The building will replace the existing Joseph F. Smith Building, which will be razed when construction begins June 3.
President Monson, first counselor in the First Presidency, said he could think of no other person who better exemplified in his life the virtues and traits of character that Church members admire than did Joseph F. Smith .
The son of Hyrum and Mary Fielding Smith, Joseph F. Smith was born Nov. 13, 1838, at Far West, Caldwell County, Mo. He crossed the plains to the Salt Lake Valley, served three full-time missions, was a gifted writer who "lived close to God and proclaimed in his writings and in his speaking the teachings of the Lord," and who demonstrated courage and conviction throughout his life, said President Monson.
"Of significance to all of us here today is this advice from him: 'Educate yourself not only for time but also for eternity. The latter of the two is the more important.' "
President Monson pointed out that in 1915, Joseph F. Smith started the Church's weekly family home evening program, promising parents that obedience to the program would result in great blessings and love at home.
It is appropriate, President Monson added, that much of the new building bearing President Smith's name will be used for further study of the family.
Units from BYU's College of Family, Home and Social Sciences will be housed in the new building, including the School of Family Life, the Family Studies Center, Women's Research Center and child and family studies labs. The new building will also house significant portions of the College of Humanities, including the Humanities Research Center, the Center for Language Studies and the university's language departments.
Paid for through private donations, the building will feature 27 classrooms, 401 faculty and administrative offices, a large auditorium, a theater and a three-level, 265-stall underground parking lot. The building contains more than double the square footage of the existing building on a smaller footprint.
Elder Merrill J. Bateman of the Seventy and BYU president, conducted the groundbreaking ceremony, attended by Elder M. Russell Ballard, Elder Richard G. Scott, and Elder Henry B. Eyring, all of the Quorum of the Twelve, and by Elder Earl C. Tingey of the Presidency of the Seventy.
A descendent of Joseph F. Smith, Elder Ballard praised the university's efforts to further the study of the family.
"We are honored as a family that this new building will carry our illustrious grandfather's name," he said. "Nobody understood, in my judgement, the great eternal plan for families better than the prophet Joseph F. Smith."
Elder Eyring, commissioner of Church Education, said in academics the term "groundbreaking" means to take something from the way it is and move it in a totally new direction. That's what BYU has done for the study of the family, he said. "There is a groundbreaking way of seeing [family studies] that will be taught in this building because of the gospel of Jesus Christ," he said.
In brief remarks, Elder Bateman noted that the decision to raze a building is always difficult. However, he said, the new building, unique in design, will beautify the campus. He added that by housing the study of the world's languages and the teaching of the family as a basic unit of society, the building might better be known as a "world family building."
The Joseph F. Smith Building will feature a landscaped courtyard and a gallery. Made of glass walls, the two-story gallery will allow not only views of the plaza below but also of the Wasatch Mountains to the east. Over time the gallery will highlight a variety of programs and disciplines across campus. However, said Elder Bateman, much of the work showcased in the gallery will focus on the university's scholarly research on the family.
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