On Oct. 10, 1975, President Spencer W. Kimball, President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, visited the campus of Brigham Young University.
His purpose was two-fold: To address students, faculty, staff and administrators as part of the school’s 100th anniversary celebrations and to dedicate the BYU Centennial Carillon Tower.
The day would prove to be historic for several reasons. First, President Kimball’s address that day — titled “The Second Century of Brigham Young University” — has become a landmark address and has served as a touchstone as the school now celebrates its 150th anniversary this school year.
At the same time, those familiar with the university’s Provo, Utah, campus today are most likely also well acquainted with the 97-foot-tall bell tower which for 50 years has chimed the refrains of “Come, Come, Ye Saints” and other hymns throughout the academic semesters.
President Kimball was hosted that day by then-BYU President Dallin H. Oaks, who called the dedication of the bell tower “a landmark to signal the completion of our first century and to remind us of lofty hopes with which we inaugurate our second century.”
In what could be considered a full-circle moment, President Oaks, now President of the Church, visited the BYU campus on Tuesday, Feb. 10, with a two-fold purpose: To address students, faculty and staff during its 150th-anniversary celebrations and to participate in a special presentation at the Carillon Bell Tower.
Following his devotional address — where the Lord’s Prophet told listeners how to draw closer to Jesus Christ — President Oaks attended the unveiling of two plaques to be placed at the bell tower: one inscribed with a quote from him and the other with a quote from his predecessor, President Kimball.
President Oaks’ quote comes from his devotional remarks. During the event, President Oaks gestured to a BYU-150 pin tacked to the lapel of his suit jacket and referred to President Kimball’s second century address.
“I firmly believe that it is the destiny of Brigham Young University to become what past and present prophets knew it could become. With the consecration and leadership of this community, BYU will become the great university of the Lord — not in the world’s way but in the Lord’s way.”
The other quote, given by President Kimball in dedicating the bell tower, says, “Just as these bells will lift the hearts of the hearers when they hear the hymns and anthems played to Thy glory, let the morality of the graduates of this university provide the music of hope for the inhabitants of this planet.”
President Oaks was accompanied to the devotional and the subsequent plaque unveiling by his wife, Sister Kristen M. Oaks, as well as Elder Clark G. Gilbert, then a General Authority Seventy and Church commissioner of education, and his wife, Sister Christine Gilbert; and BYU President C. Shane Reese and his wife, Sister Wendy Reese. (It was announced on Thursday, Feb. 12, that Elder Gilbert was called as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.)
President Oaks served as the president of BYU from 1971 to 1980. In a video published on Nov. 9, 2025, President Oaks and the late President Jeffrey R. Holland, president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, spoke together regarding BYU’s past half-century.
President Oaks hired President Holland as the dean of religious education — a half-dozen years before the former replaced the latter as university president.
In reminiscing about the past 50 years, President Oaks said, “I know that BYU is the Lord’s university because it was established by a prophet. It has been carried on with prophetic leadership to this day, and it places the highest priority for its students and its faculty and its administration and its position in the community to furthering the ideals, the teachings and the values of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
“That is what BYU means to me.”
According to BYU’s website, there are 53 bells in the carillon tower, all of which were cast in Holland. The bells are chimed by a player, known as a carilloneur, who uses a keyboard.
President Oaks broke ground for the tower on Feb. 13, 1975, by riding on a scraper and driving a team of Clydesdale horses.
