Photo highlights of Pres. Hinckley's service
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A new photo exhibit chronicling the life of President Gordon B. Hinckley offers a glimpse into a life lived in full.
Included in the exhibit's 90-plus photos are images that will be familiar to Church members — presiding at temple dedications; working with fellow First Presidency members; family photos of tender moments with his wife, Sister Marjorie P. Hinckley, and their children. Many of the photos have been published in the Church News.
But viewers will also witness a young Gordon Hinckley with his siblings. A childhood snapshot with the Hinckley family dog. A newspaper clipping announcing the mission call of Elder Gordon B. Hinckley to the European Mission.
A survey of a life 95 years in the making.
The photo exhibit — displayed on accordion-style panels and framed with image summaries — can be found in the Conference Center lobby and in the North Visitor's Center on Temple Square through the end of September. The photo exhibit will then travel to Church visitors' centers in Laie, Hawaii; Los Angeles and Oakland, Calif.; Mesa, Ariz.; Idaho Falls, Idaho; St. George, Utah; Kirtland, Ohio; Palmyra, N.Y.; and Washington, D.C.
The many passages of President Hinckley's busy life are included in the exhibit. Photographs of a young Elder Hinckley testifying at London's Hyde Park segue into his employment in what would become the Church's public affairs office. His courtship and marriage of Marjorie Pay shift to images of the growing Hinckley family.
A nostalgic moment of Church history is found in the black-and-white photograph of Gordon B. Hinckley accepting President David O. McKay's call in 1958 to become a General Authority. Later photos reveal Elder Hinckley visiting LDS troops in uniform during the Vietnam War and images of the maturing apostle traveling abroad to serve a global Church.
A 1981 photo of President Hinckley with President Spencer W. Kimball and fellow members of the First Presidency suggests a seasoned shepherd prepared to tend to the needs of a growing membership.
A large chunk of the exhibit focuses on President Hinckley's decade-long tenure as Church president. Highlights include photo images connected to President Hinckley's 1997 monumental announcement of plans to begin building smaller temples throughout the world; the dedication of the Conference Center in 2000; and the establishment of the Perpetual Education Fund the next year.
A common theme can be found in almost every one of the exhibit's photos: an energized life spent sidestepping idleness.
"Work, work, work is the best antidote for loneliness, for incapacity, for any other thing that happens to impede your progress," President Hinckley said recently. "I've had a challenge all of these years, and that keeps me going."
E-mail to: jswensen@desnews.com
