New Superintendent of Church Schools

New Superintendent of Church Schools (See Frontispiece) It was announced on Wednesday. De- cember 28, 1927. by the First Presidency, that Dr. Joseph F. Merrill, director of the School of Mines and Engineering, and the Engineering Experiment Station, at the University of Utah, had been appointed superintendent of Church schools, and that Dr. Adam S. Bennion. who had served in that capacity for nine years, had been honorably released from the position. Announcement has been made by the Utah Power and Light Company that Dr. Bennion will serve that company as Di- rector of Personnel, a newly created posi- tion. The change becomes effective on the first of February, 1928. Dr. Bennion leaves the position with the utmost good- will, approval, and blessing of President Heber J. Grant and his associates. Dr. Bennion has faithfully served the Church in this capacity, and has expressed him- self through the public press as grateful to the First Presidency and to all asso- ciated with them, in the educational af- fairs of the Church, for the generous sup- port and the fine freedom of thought granted him under their liberal admin istration. Dr. Joseph F. Merrill, the new super- intendent of Church schools, has had an extensive experience in the educational field, and intensive training which quali- fies him for his new and important posi- tion. Although his training and activities have been mostly in scientific and technical fields. Dr. Merrill is also trained in the field of education. He has been referred to as the father of the Church Seminary, now established near many high schools. He proposed, in 1911. the establishment of the seminary near the Granite high school, the first institution of the kind established by the Church, and his dream of a seminary at every high school is rapidly coming true. Since the fall of 1900, Dr. Merrill has worked continually to promote the interest of the School of Mines for the University of Utah, which was then organized by the passage of a bill by the legislature, drawn up by Dr. Merrill, in which the Mining School was made one of the divisions of the Uni- versity. He was also the sponsor of the bill which established the Utah Engineering Experiment Station and the Department of Mining and Metallurgical Research Depart- ment at the University. Hence, in a sense, he is the father also of Mining and Metallurgical Research Departments through which the University cooperates with the United States Bureau of Mines. And it was also through his efforts that the Bureau of Mines came to Utah to establish the Inter-Mountain Station. Dr. Merrill regards the existent standing of the Engineering School of the University and the cooperative work with the Bureau of Mines as the best evidence for his service to the University and to the State, and acknowledges his success in this line to the cooperative work of his colleagues on the faculty, the president, the regents, the students, and many friends and sup- porters in business and professional life not on the campus: and he expresses his grati- tude to all of these. He also says that it is not an easy thing to leave the Uni- versity after being officially connected with it during thirty-five years. He goes only because he believes that the new position offero him opportunities for greater service. During the past nine years in which Dr. Bennion has served as superintendent the seminary movement, especially, has experienced phenomenal growth. During the past seven years of his administration the number of seminaries increased from twenty to seventy with tremendous in crease in enrollment. Dr. Joseph Francis Merrill was born at Richmond. Utah. August 24. 1868. and is a graduate of the Normal School of the University of Utah, 1889; University of Michigan, 1893, B. S.; Johns Hopkins

326 IMPROVEMENT ERA University, 1899, Ph. D. ; University of Utah, 1920, D. Sc. He married Annie Laura Hyde, June 9, 1898. She died Feb- ruary, 1917, and he married Emily L. Traub. of Ft. Wayne, Indiana, June 29, 1918. He was an assistant professor of chemistry in 1893-1897, and became Di- rector in the Utah State School of Mines and Engineering in 1899. He holds the high- est grade of membership, that of Fellow in the American Physics Society, is a member of the American Institute of Elec- trical Engineers, and the American Asso- ciation for Advancement of Science. In a Church capacity, he was counselor to the President of the Granite stake 1911-1919, has always been sympathetic with the plans for religious teaching, and during all his years more or less active in this capa- city. He is the author of Manual of Physics, 1907, 1913. See frontispiece in this number of the Era. Two Primaries Sister Minerva Boss writing from Terre Haute, Indiana, Northern States mission, reports that there are two primaries of equal number with the one shown in the picture herewith, in Terre Haute, Indiana. The members are all non-members of the Church, except two of the children on the front row. Recently a program in the park with this group was held with their mothers, eight of the latter being present and thirty-five children. The program was given by the children, rnd Sister Boss made a talk on the -u-poK of the Primary Associations, and gave a display to the mothers of the busy work, sewing, painting, etc. They were very interested in the work, and ap- preciated the interest taken in their children. She says, "We passed out literature of our Church and were permitted to explain some of the principles of the gospel. We feel that through the Primary work, the parents may become interested in our mes- sage. This is an average attendance of our class, while we have thirty enrolled. The class is divided into three groups, The Seagull. Trail Builders and smaller chil- dren." ^3HP)B K°0|i^>^ yki B^jfiwBijM |J ~J^M^fl The three ladies in the back row. left to right, are the instructors: Thelma Bryant, one of our local members. Minerva Boss, and her missionary com- panion. Elizabeth Tooth, from Manti. Utah.