A prominent attorney who argued 50 cases before the U.S. Supreme Court and helped found the J. Reuben Clark Law School at Brigham Young University has been named to lead BYU "into the 1990s and into the 21st Century."
Former U.S. Solicitor General Rex E. Lee will become president of BYU effective July 1, President Gordon B. Hinckley, first counselor in the First Presidency, announced at an assembly in the Marriott Center May 12. Pres. Lee will succeed Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, recently called to the First Quorum of the Seventy. Because he is traveling on university business, Elder Holland was not present for the announcement.The new president said he has had a love affair with BYU for 35 years, having earned his undergraduate degree there, served as student body president and worked as founding dean of the J. Reuben Clark Law School from 1972 to 1981. Like Ernest L. Wilkinson and Dallin H. Oaks, the two presidents preceding Elder Holland, Pres. Lee is a successful attorney. He currently teaches law at BYU.
"It wasn't necessary to go far afield," President Hinckley said. "He was here, and there are others who were qualified and might have been selected if he hadn't been here."
Pres. Lee was called, President Hinckley said, under the divine authority of holy apostleship as well as under the authority invested in the board of trustees.
"I feel strongly that in the mercy of the Lord his life has been preserved and health restored to go forward with this tremendous assignment," said President Hinckley, referring to Pres. Lee's recent battle with cancer.
In a press conference following the assembly, Pres. Lee said that 23 months ago he was diagnosed as having a non-Hodgkins lymphoma, which comes in four stages of severity. He said his cancer was in the advanced part of the most severe fourth stage. However, good medical treatment and prayer, he related, led to a remission in September 1987. Since then, he has passed two major milestones in his recovery - the first going for a year without the cancer flaring up again, and then for an additional six months.
"I've started running again," said Pres. Lee, who was an avid runner before his illness. "I don't run as fast as I used to, but that's partly because I'm 54 years old."
As president of BYU, Pres. Lee plans to maintain the pace set by Elder Holland while he becomes acclimated to the job. He said Elder Holland's shoes are big, and he won't attempt to fill them.
"There are benefits to an institution that just come from the fact of change," he continued. "The magnitude of those benefits are proportional to the magnitude of the changes. I look forward to joining hands with you faculty and studentsT and taking this university into the decades of the 1990s and into the 21st Century."
Though he didn't seek the job, the attorney said he is glad he was chosen as president. His "love affair" with BYU goes back 35 years to when he entered the school as a freshman. He remembered being terrified because his hometown of St. Johns, Ariz., had a population one-fourth the size of BYU's entering freshman class.
"Over the years the relationship has matured," he noted. "A large share of what I am, what I think, feel and aspire to are tied to this university. It's not just another university."
During the assembly, Pres. Lee's wife, Janet, also a BYU graduate, expressed appreciation for her husband's restored health. She said the president's job is unique because it will allow her to share in his responsibilities.
In a prepared statement read at the assembly, Elder Holland, as the outgoing president, said Pres. Lee was a close friend and long-time academic colleague. "With Janet at his side, he will provide marvelous guidance in this important new period of BYU's continuing refinement and ongoing development," said Elder Holland."
(ADDITIONAL INFORMATION)
Rex E. Lee
Born: Feb. 27, 1935, in Los Angeles, Calif.; raised in St. Johns, Ariz.
Family: Married Janet Griffin on July 7, 1959, in the Arizona Temple; parents of seven children.
Career: Partner in law firm of Sidley & Austin in Washington, D.C.; professor of Constitutional Law and George Sutherland Professor of Law, J. Reuben Clark Law School; U.S. Solicitor General, 1981-1985; founding dean of J. Reuben Clark Law School, 1972-1981; Assistant U.S. Attorney General in charge of Justice Department's Civil Division, 1975-1976; associate and partner, Jennings, Strouss and Salmon, Phoenix, Ariz., 1964-1972; law clerk to Supreme Court Justice Byron R. White, 1963-1964.
Education: J.D. 1963, University of Chicago Law School, first in his class; B.A. 1960, BYU; holder of five honorary Doctor of Law degrees.
Church callings: Currently bishop of Oak Hills (Provo, Utah) 3rd Ward; member of Young Men General Board, 1958-1960; stake president; high councilor, Sunday School teacher.
