President Gordon B. Hinckley has agreed to lend his name to an endowment that has the potential to make the University of Utah one of the country's premier places to study British literature.

The U. College of Humanities will use the endowment to hire an international authority to chair the English department's British studies program. The chair position will be named in honor of President Hinckley, president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

"We are looking to hire someone like an Oxford don or a distinguished professor from Cambridge, Harvard or Yale," said Robert Newman, dean of the U. College of Humanities.

U. administrators were pleased by President Hinckley's willingness to lend his name to the position.

"His support shows that this is something he believes in," Newman said.

His decision came as no surprise to family members.

Virginia Hinckley Pearce, said her father is "very honored that the U. would do this. He has a special place in his heart for the U. and British literature."

President Hinckley graduated from the U. in 1932, earning a bachelor's degree in English. Afterward, he served an LDS mission in the British Isles.

"Go Forward with Faith," Hinckley's biography, states that "the literature Gordon had studied became more meaningful as he lived in the land of (its) origin." Hinckley's own writing "may have increased his appreciation for the exposure he received in England to some of the world's finest literature," according to the biography written by Sheri Dew.

In 1998, during a commencement address that President Hinckley was invited to give at the U., he held aloft a copy of a worn book and said, "I brought a book with me today, my old Shakespeare text from which I read so long ago in English 171. It is filled with wisdom."

Pearce says her father still recites passages from the classics.

"He frequently quotes Shakespeare. He quotes Kipling. Passages of great literature are just floating around in his head," Pearce said.

Newman said that making the U. a leader in British studies is appropriate because of the historical ties between Great Britain and Utah. In the mid-1800s, 100,000 British citizens immigrated to Utah as converts to the LDS Church. In 1870, nearly half of Utah's population was British born.

The Gordon B. Hinckley Endowed Chair is an expansion of an endowment created three years ago. Last summer, 23 U. students went to Great Britain to study Shakespearean theater with financial assistance from The Gordon B. Hinckley Endowment. This summer, the endowment is partially funding another trip to England for students.

Max Freeman, a U. English student who participated in the study abroad trip last year, said he is excited to see the endowment expand.

"Having an endowed chair, having one of the world's top scholars on British studies, would be invaluable to students. It is a huge boon to students and the program," Freeman said.

U. English professor Norman Council said he hopes the endowment grows to the point where fellowships could be offered to graduate students. An endowed faculty chair position is also in the works to help recruit faculty members, he said.

U. officials have scheduled a dinner for 700 people on July 12 as a celebration of the endowment's growth. President Hinckley and U. President Bernie Machen will attend. CNN talk show host Larry King will be master of ceremonies.

More information about the endowment can be found at hinckleyendowment.utah.edu.

E-mail: jparkinson@desnews.com