PROVO, Utah — Using his own shovel — worn from years of hard work — President Gordon B. Hinckley broke ground on his 96th birthday, June 23, for a new building on BYU's Provo campus that will bear his name.
University officials, students, faculty, staff, alumni and donors, and Hinckley family members attended the mid-morning ceremony, which marked the beginning of construction for BYU's Gordon B. Hinckley Alumni and Visitors Center.
"I am deeply grateful and honored by what this represents," President Hinckley said of the building, expected to be completed in the fall of 2007.
"This new building is singular in the fact that it has been built while the man whose name it bears is still alive," he added.
In addition to paying tribute to President Hinckley, the 80,000-square-foot building will serve as a campus home for BYU alumni and a front gate to the university. More than 50,000 people contributed to the project, which President Hinckley said will not be constructed with the tithes of Church members.
"All the cost of construction and all the cost of maintenance have come and will come from donations," he said. "I thank every one of you who has contributed in any way."
President Hinckley said the only thing that "dulled the luster" of the great day was the absence of his wife, Marjorie Pay Hinckley, who died April 6, 2004, and whose name is memorialized on campus with an endowed chair in social work and the social sciences.
"She has on this campus a chair which carries her name, and I now have a building," President Hinckley said with characteristic wit. "Maybe we could move her chair into my building, and we'd be together again."
President Hinckley was joined by his counselors in the First Presidency — President Thomas S. Monson and President James E. Faust — his five children, project donors, and university officials to turn the soil where the old alumni building, dedicated in 1962 and recently razed, had previously stood. While others used decorative shovels bearing BYU's name, President Hinckley used a shovel from his own tool collection.
"It has accompanied him on countless outdoor projects around the Hinckley home," said BYU President Cecil O. Samuelson of the Seventy. "This morning he is using it once again for this significant project bearing his name. He has assured me that once he is finished with it here, we will be able to keep it on display in this building."
During brief remarks, President Monson said he was honored to use the occasion to pay tribute to President Hinckley for his work ethic, optimism and dedication to the gospel of Jesus Christ.
"Amidst the turbulence of our times, we reach out for one who will guide us to safety. That one is President Gordon B. Hinckley," he said. "He is our prophet, seer and revelator. He is an island of calm in a sea of storm. He is as a lighthouse to the mariner who is lost. He is your friend and my friend.
"This beautiful building, which will grace this site, will ever stand as a monument to our beloved President Hinckley."
President Monson said it was his privilege to know and love President Hinckley before either was called to the Quorum of the Twelve, "where through the years I have sat next to him, served with him and learned from him. I am a witness to his prophetic calling."
Although time did not permit President Monson to list all of President Hinckley's numerous accomplishments, he said a capsule view of his presidency reveals a worldwide expansion of the Church, temples that dot the land, the Conference Center, humanitarian efforts throughout the world, and the Perpetual Education Fund.
"Since all who would wish to greet President Hinckley personally cannot come to him, President Hinckley has gone worldwide to them," he said. "He is a prophet to the people. . . . He is a man of gifted intellect, a man of compassion, a man of capacity, a friend to one and all, and a leader who inspires spirituality."
President Monson called President Hinckley's outreach on an international scale unprecedented. "President Hinckley's life is a gift to the world," he said.
President Faust also said the new building will memorialize President Hinckley's great life and accomplishments, more numerous than most people know.
He said his friend, whom he has known for 67 years, is among those spoken of by King Benjamin in the Book of Mormon, when he said "the Lord God has sent his holy prophets among all children of men to declare these things to every kindred, nation and tongue."
President Faust explained, "Without question, President Hinckley has traveled farther than any president of the Church to declare his testimony to the people of this earth. So in many respects, his life is his testimony."
Representing the Hinckley family, Clark Hinckley spoke of his family's connection with BYU, which dates back 123 years when Bryant S. Hinckley came to the campus in 1883. The then-16-year-old Bryant Hinckley, President Hinckley's father, went on to graduate from Brigham Young Academy and was a student orator at his commencement exercises. He joined the faculty and taught at the institution for nine years. In addition, Bryant Hinckley became president of the alumni association and organized the emeritus club, of which he also served as president.
Clark Hinckley said that although his father never attended BYU, President Hinckley became a member of the BYU board of trustees in 1961 and has been chairman of the board of trustees for the past 11 years. Both President and Sister Hinckley received honorary degrees from the university.
"For the past four and a half decades he has been intimately involved in every major decision regarding the direction and future of Brigham Young University," Clark Hinckley said of his father.
He added that Bryant Hinckley's experiences at the institution years ago continues to influence Hinckley family members for good today.
"For us, this new building closes a circle that began generations ago."
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