BYU endowed chair: A fitting tribute to Sister Hinckley
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PROVO, Utah — Hundreds gathered at BYU Feb. 9 for the second-annual Marjorie Pay Hinckley Lecture — an event family members in attendance called a fitting tribute to their mother and sister.
Funded by the endowed chair in social work and the social sciences named for Sister Hinckley — the late wife of President Gordon B. Hinckley — the event was the centerpiece of a series of activities intended to help BYU focus on the family through research and education.
"Our father would very much like to be here," said Elder Richard G. Hinckley of the Seventy, speaking of President Hinckley who is recovering from recent surgery. "I think of all of the honors that he has received, all the honorary doctorates, nothing gave him more pleasure than you honoring our mother with this particular chair. He was just thrilled with that."
Sara McLanahan, a Princeton University researcher, offered the lecture at the event, detailing a groundbreaking national study of "fragile families," a term for a family formed when a child is born out of wedlock to young disadvantaged parents. (Please see report on the lecture on this page.)
Elder Hinckley said if Dr. McLanahan had met his mother, she might understand why people get so emotional when they talk about her.
"She was born in a little tiny hamlet of Nephi, Utah," he said. "She did not have an opportunity for a lot of formal education, beyond high school, because of the Depression. She went to work, and was fortunate enough to find a job during those years and was able to help her family. . . . But she was very learned in her own way.
" She had a wonderful way of seeing people and understanding human nature. That was a gift. . . . She was an optimist. She saw the best in everyone. She traveled the world with our father."
BYU announced the Marjorie Pay Hinckley Chair in Social Work and Social Sciences during a campus ceremony April 29, 2003 — the Hinckleys' 66th wedding anniversary — honoring Sister Hinckley for "her commitment to family and community."
David B. Magleby, dean of the BYU College of Family, Home and Social Sciences, said the chair honors the service and contributions of a woman whose "humor and honesty" touched so many. In addition to the annual university lecture, the chair also funds mentored learning projects for students, research conferences, visiting scholars and outreach efforts in the community, he said.
The chair, he said, is appropriate for a university that is not only strongly committed to the study of the family, but also invests a lot of time and effort to the discipline; in 1998 BYU created the School of Family Life. The unique school allows scholars to conduct family-related research and teach family-oriented classes. Since its inception, the school has also strengthened BYU's contribution to family public policy.
In addition, said Dean Magleby, BYU has many students interested in studying family issues. The university has the "largest aggregation of family scholars among any university in the world," he said.
Bringing researchers such as Dr. McLanahan to campus will help the university "enhance the quality of our research," he said.
The impressive turnout to her lecture — which included near capacity crowds gathered in the Joseph Smith Auditorium on campus — is an indication of that interest, he said. Before the lecture, Dr. McLanahan noted that she is not used to speaking in front of such large audiences and thanked the BYU community for its support.
Dean Magleby said the university was also pleased with the tremendous show of support from the Hinckley family. Four of Sister Hinckley's siblings and four of her children attended the event.
"We are honored to have the chair in honor of such a wonderful woman," he said. "We are grateful the family is so interested and supportive of what we are doing."
E-mail to: sarah@desnews.com
