Prominent members of the Salt Lake medical community honored and applauded Elder M. Russell Ballard April 17 for "building bridges of trust among disparate groups and for playing a key role in the preservation" of Church history.

Photo by Jeffrey D. Allred/Deseret News

Elder M. Russell Ballard addresses audience after receiving the 2008 Legacy of Life Award. He was honored for playing key role in unity among disparate groups, and for being involved in resolving community issues.

Elder Ballard of the Quorum of the Twelve received the 2008 Legacy of Life Award bestowed by the Deseret Foundation's Heart & Lung Research Foundation at a dinner in Salt Lake City.

It was the first of two awards in a week for Elder Ballard, the second received in Washington, D.C.

The research foundation raises funds to aid clinical practice and research in the medical arena. Past recipients of the award have included Presidents Gordon B. Hinckley and Thomas S. Monson, and two other apostles of the Church, Elders Neal A. Maxwell and Russell M. Nelson, among prominent community leaders stemming back to the origin of the award in 1991.

A video presentation produced expressly for the award presentation to Elder Ballard included a tribute from President Monson, who said: "Russ Ballard has been a great contributor to this community. He's not a bystander if something needs to be accomplished. He can usually be found in the center of the activity. His work as a member of the Alliance for Unity in our area has yielded greater unity, the very purpose for which it was established."

Norma Matheson, widow of former Utah Gov. Scott M. Matheson and a member of the alliance herself, called Elder Ballard "one of those great bridge builders in the alliance." She praised his experience and background, adding, "But I think the most important thing about Elder Ballard is his really thoughtful dedication to doing the right thing."

Michael Young, president of the University of Utah, said Elder Ballard "not only lives his religion, he embodies his religion, reaching out, not just recognizing the impact of different developments on individuals, but knows how to talk to institutions to get things done to make the world a better place."

Several other Church and community leaders gave expressions of tribute on the video.

In response to the award presentation, Elder Ballard said, "I'm grateful that we are taking steps in our community to reach out to one another and to develop more and more of that spirit of unity and oneness as we really take on and work together in struggling with major challenges and major difficulties that face our country, face the world, really, and even face our community."

Elder Ballard said he was grateful to be able to report that the extensive genealogical database developed over the years by the Church has been used by medical science in researching the cause of maladies such as cancer and heart disease. "And I would like to just say on behalf of the Church ... we are so grateful that that wonderful resource, which we have done primarily for ecclesiastical purposes, has found its way into the medical sciences."

E-mail to: rscott@desnews.com