We looked for people in
the midst of the myriad nominations who were common folk like you and us,
yet uncommon in their devotion to a cause, unrelenting in their pursuit of
service, and unswerving in their devotion to principles of righteousness.
We have chosen some people you will likely recognize, but mostly they are
people that we have chosen to recognize—people who probably haven’t
been given a prestigious leadership award in their lives and probably didn’t
care to receive one, but who deserved it long ago.
Meridian’s own Rodger
Dean Duncan and Ed J. Pinegar wrote a fitting statement that says much about
those we are about to introduce you to: “In every sense, great leaders
in the Church are Christ-centered Saints. While their personalities, styles
and skills may vary widely, the common thread of their character is faithfulness,
devotion, love unfeigned, sacrifice and consecration. They live as though
their lives depend on their character, because they do.”
Such is the case as we
announce the following six Meridian Leadership Awards and also introduce you,
tomorrow, to six more who are being honored with the Meridian Leadership Honorable
Mention Awards. Congratulations to all 12 of you. We honor you. We thank you
for your service. We hope that our small token of appreciation will bless
and lift you.
Susan
Roylance
of West Jordan, Utah and Nairobi, Kenya
She’s called by
many the “champion of the family.” This unassuming mother of seven
and grandmother of 22 has traveled to 35 countries and participated in 21
international conferences to fight the never-ending battle to preserve the
family.
Susan’s life changed
the day she was "laughed and sneered at” during the Fourth World
Conference of Women. “When I introduced myself in a caucus meeting as
being from United Families I was shocked that they hated families so much,
and thought that motherhood was such a demeaning role for women. That day
I decided to get more involved – to represent motherhood, and the family,
in a positive way.”
One of Susan’s
special interests is working with orphans and street children. Perhaps that’s
why she and her husband of 42 years, Bob, are now officially “bi-continental,”
living in both West Jordan, Utah and in Africa. The work Susan and Bob are
doing in Africa is an extension of the public policy work Susan has done at
the UN for so many years.
Everything that Susan
has accomplished seems to have prepared her for her latest and perhaps greatest
contribution to the pro-family movement—the compilation of the United
Nations Negotiating Guide. This miraculous 480-page volume collects under
one cover twenty-two key international treaties and UN conference documents
and identifies, organizes, and indexes the family-supportive language. UN
ambassadors and delegates have begged for copies.
Dr. Richard Wilkins says
of her: “Susan Roylance is an inveterate ‘do-er.’ In fact,
I have never seen anyone work so hard, so long, and so effectively on as many
projects as Susan. Furthermore, she doesn't seem to be overwhelmed when the
odds are against her. She simply (and in a clear, systematic manner) sizes
up the task that lays before her, determines how best to tackle it, and then
goes to work. She doesn't stop until the task is done. Sometimes I wonder
whether she needs sleep. As a result, lives are blessed and miracles occur
in her wake. Susan is a true latter-day hero.”
Susan is the co-founder
and former president of United Families International, and president and/or
director of numerous other organizations including: Reach the Children, ChildHelp
International, Women for Integrity in the Nation, Coalition for Religious
Liberty, Utah Association of Women, Children’s Museum of Utah, and the
PTA.
Elaine Cannon
of Salt Lake City, Utah
“It
is her leadership in the home that is most remarkable to me,” reports
Holly C. Metcalf, daughter of Elaine Cannon. “Mother managed to be a
full-time mom and still handle a full load of Church and employment responsibilities
because she would get up at ‘the crack of dawn’ and write her
daily newspaper column or the manuals for various auxiliaries, leaving her
many hours to run the house, maintain the yard, sew, cook, and help her children
with their needs. Her six children can speak of her ability to manage, juggle,
prioritize, and inspire.”
Elaine Cannon may be best
remembered for her service as General President of the Young Women, on the
Church Correlation Committee, or as assistant editor for the New Era magazine,
which she helped create.
The last decade or so
has been marked by one heartache after another for Elaine and her family.
She has lost three grown children to various diseases, and then lost her husband,
for whom she had cared for 18 years while he struggled with the effects of
a stroke. In spite of these potentially faith-wrenching and body-breaking
trials, Elaine has provided an example to all her posterity of submissiveness
to God’s will, steady endurance, and has shown the way to ‘carry
on’ (which happens to be one of her favorite hymns). As an example of
her optimism, when her own health problems become cumbersome she always replies
when asked how she is, “Things are looking up, thank you.”
Holly reports further:
“At age eighty she was just released from her calling as Stake Relief
Society President to serve as a teacher in her ward Relief Society.”
Strangers and friends
alike are impressed with her magnetism, warmth, energy and charm. Audiences
and readers have been entertained and inspired by her words of instruction
and testimony. “But it is to her family that she leaves the greatest
legacy,” says Holly.
Donald Deshler
of Overland Park, Kansas
Donald D. Deshler, Ph.D.,
is Professor of Special Education and Director of the Center for Research
on Learning at the University of Kansas. He teaches graduate courses on instructional
methodologies for teachers of adolescents and young adults with learning disabilities.
The Center for Research on Learning is an internationally recognized research
and development organization noted for creating solutions that dramatically
improve quality of life, learning, and performance, especially for those who
experience barriers to success. The Center has received $45 million in grants
and financial assistance to fund its research and work.
Brother Deshler is former
President of the Lenexa Kansas Stake, and presently serves as Director of
Multi-Stake Public Affairs for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
in the greater Kansas City area. His leadership in public affairs is stellar.
He has great vision and expresses his vision in leadership to public affairs
councils in six LDS stakes. Rodger Dean Duncan, coauthor of "Leadership
for Saints", and Meridian Magazine contributor, is a member of Don's
multi-stake council. Rodger recently commented that he had been involved in
public-affairs-type councils in many areas of the world, but he had not observed
one of higher caliber or more successful than the council headed by Don Deshler.
His church service has
touched thousands of lives directly and continues to touch many lives indirectly.
His professional research and work have touched thousands of teachers and
many thousands more students whose lives have been greatly improved as they
overcome their learning and achievement barriers.
Don is modest about his
achievements and will not discuss openly his professional accolades and successes,
although they are numerous. Consequently, this information, though known to
a few, is virtually unavailable.
Linda King
of El Paso, Texas
Linda King is an amazing woman. If you ask any Latter-day Saint in the El
Paso area if they know Linda, they probably will. "She has done much
for the community in this area," says friend Anne Pratt, "and she
has built up the name of the Church here tremendously."
Linda is a mover and a
shaker. She is currently serving as Stake Community Relations Specialist.
She goes way above her “job description.” She spends 30-40 hours
each week volunteering for or organizing different projects for various non-profit
organizations.
She started a program
where missionaries go to a shelter and cut the hair of the homeless each week.
This has been on-going for nearly 2 years now and the word is out because
there is a long line every week for haircuts.
For the last 4 years she
has organized a luncheon for more than 30 non-profit organizations in El Paso.
She asks them what they need for the coming year. She takes their suggestions
and is a prime mover and resource for each ward in her stake as to service
projects, and eagle scout and laurel projects. She makes sure that each year
all of these organizations are helped at least once, and usually multiple
times. Some of these are Red Cross, Salvation Army, YWCA, Candelighters, Child
Crises Center, and United Way.
She came up with the idea
to paint a wall on an entire city block here. She helped the youth in our
area design it and they painted it for Youth Conference. It is a beautiful
and permanent addition to El Paso’s landscape.
She has helped the city
receive thousands of pounds of canned goods from the Humanitarian department
of the Church for the Martin Luther King annual food drive several years running.
She has orchestrated monthly
birthday parties for the Children’s Day Care Center (a place to help
low income single women get education and gainful employment while their children
are taken care of). These children have nothing, and are so appreciative of
the parties that Linda delegates and/or oversees.
In each case she has received
great press for the Church in both newspapers and TV spots. Largely for her
efforts the Church is seen in a very positive light here. In everything she
does, Linda is not afraid to represent herself as a member of the Church.
Last year, Linda experienced
a great tragedy. Her daughter was murdered. Instead of stopping her efforts,
she has worked with even more tenacity. “The service is good therapy
for me.” She says. Since that event, she has been asked to speak at
many high schools teaching teens ways to avoid abuse. She has been an advocate
for “Battered Women’s Shelter,” and other abuse/help organizations
as well because of this soft spot in her heart.
Beverly Carmen
Spencer
of Torrance, California
Sister Beverly Spencer
has a mission to make others feel warm with her quilts and the love that she
puts into them. She has spent a lifetime making quilts for anyone in need.
In the last 4 years since her husband’s untimely death she has made
and sent the Humanitarian Department of the Church more than 400 hand made
quilts.
One young girl in her
ward has an illness and has to attend church in a wheel chair. Sister Spencer
noticed that she had a blanket over her legs to keep warm so she went home
and made her a lap quilt for every holiday so that she could change blankets
each month.
She has also donated quilts
for the local Police Department to hand out to children in need. According
to her son, David Spencer, “My mom lives her life in serving others
and always thinks and ponders on how she can give of herself to those in need.
She will drop everything when someone is in need. She will go without in order
that her loved ones have.”
Sister Spencer has also
made personal quilts for all of her 29 grand children and her 2 great grandchildren.
Sister Spencer has served
as Relief Society President, Primary President, Early Morning Seminary Teacher,
Temple Preparation Teacher, Sunday School Teacher, Relief Society Teacher,
Visiting Teacher, and she was a major support to her husband when he was the
Stake Patriarch, transcribing over 500 blessings.
Garry Matson
of Chubbuck, Idaho
Garry
Matson has fulfilled his calling as a home teacher ever since he was called.
He has taken the stewardship of this great calling very serious and has always
believed that this is the most important calling one can be given in the church.
According to his daughter,
Debra Layman, “he is the most faithful home teacher I have ever known.
He never misses a month, unless he is gone out of town. He does his very best
to be there for those people to whom he has been blessed to visit and makes
sure that they know he is their home teacher. Even when our mother suffered
a stroke at 30 years old and has struggled with health problems ever since,
even working three jobs to support his growing family, he never missed his
home teaching.”
Garry Matson is also known
for his honesty. His daughter tells this story of him: “My Father is
the most honest person you will ever meet. When I was a newly employed young
woman, my parents wanted to take me out to lunch. We went to a nice restaurant
and enjoyed a wonderful lunch filled with talking and enjoying each other’s
company. My father received the check and he always checks it over to make
sure that everything is correct on it. I remember him saying that they didn't
charge him for my meal. He looked at it, double checked it and realized that
they totally missed it. We went up to the counter to pay for it and he told
the cashier that they had missed a meal that we had purchased. They went to
the waitress and sure enough, it had been left off. The cashier was so impressed
with my father's honesty that he gave him his next visit to the restaurant
free. My father said that wasn't necessary. But he insisted. The cashier told
my father that he wished more people would be as honest as he was. I could
do nothing but smile and beam at my father.
“He has always been
an example to all of us children and grandchildren, but what he told me has
never left me in my life, ‘Debbie, the Lord expects us to be honest
in all our dealings, that means everything we do we are to be honest. We got
a nice lunch. That waitress works hard for a living. She would have lost out
on that meal because she missed it. You should never try to get something
for free when you were planning on purchasing it anyway.’ I always remember
my Father and how he has taught me to be honest.”
Garry Matson has been
married nearly 46 years, has five children (all married in the temple), and
15 grandchildren. He and his wife, Glenis, are temple workers in the Idaho
Falls Temple.
Don’t
miss Meridian’s Thursday edition (tomorrow) where we will highlight
the six Meridian Leadership Honorable Mention Awards.