| OCR Text |
Show 166 On December 10, l97l, he was inaugurated as President and his father was privileged to deliver the inaugural address. The elder Eyring outlined the opportunities, responsibilities and challenges his son would face as president of the eighty-three year old institution. Also attending the special convocation were Hal's brothers, Ted and Harden. President Harold B. Lee, First Counselor in the First Presidency Of the Church, conducted the service and in his opening remarks commended Henry Eyring for his "great family."20 Hal Eyring served as President of Ricks College until l977, when he became Deputy Commissioner of Church Education. The new position put him in charge of the Church's worldwide school system of seminaries and institutes and the extensive adult religion program of the Church.21 His responsibilities included the churchwide overseeing of 5,000 employees and the education of 600,000 students. In addition to his active involve- ment in Church education, he also has served in many Church positions including an appointment as Bishop while he was living in Stanford. Harden Eyring, after a year in college, spent two and a half years on a Church mission in Switzerland and Austria. When he returned, he completed work on bachelors degrees in both mathematics and physics in l963 and l964 respectively, making sure to fulfill his father's desires. From Utah, he went to Columbia University in New York City to study law. He obtained a Juris Doctorate Degree there in l967 and then went to San Francisco to practice law. After three and a half years of private prac- tice in the Bay area, he moved back to Salt Lake City to take the posi- tion of Assistant Commissioner of Utah's Higher Education System, in charge of planning. The Commissioner of Higher Education, at the time, was his father's old friend and associate, G. Homer Durham. One of the |
