Elder Harold G. Hillam dies at 77

The Mormon Eagle takes the following from the Deseret News of Thursday 29 March 2012:

Elder Harold G. Hillam, 77, an emeritus general authority for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, died Tuesday evening at his home in Bountiful.

Elder Hillam was called to the Second Quorum of the Seventy at the April 1990 general conference of the church, and to the First Quorum a year later.  He served in the Presidency of the Seventy for five years, from August 1995 through August 2000.  He was named an emeritus general authority on Oct. 1, 2005, and was called to be president of the Boise Idaho Temple of the church.  He was released as temple president in 2008.

Among his assignments were counselor, then president of the Brazil area and counselor and president in the Europe West Area.  He also was Sunday School general president for five years.

He was born on Sept. 1, 1935, in Sugar City, Idaho, to Gordon Hillam and Evelyn Skidmore Hillam.  He was the third of five children and the oldest son.  He spent part of his boyhood in St. Anthony, Idaho, and served a mission to Brazil.

Elder Hillam was only 11 when his father fell gravely ill and had to be hospitalized in Salt Lake City.  His mother went to Salt Lake City to be with her sick husband, leaving him and his two older sisters to run the family home.

"We just kind of made ends meet," he recalled in a Church News interview after he was sustained to the Seventy.  "There was no income.  The two girls had a job and I had a paper route and that was really it."
During that time, he said he poured out his worries to his Heavenly Father and promised a lifetime of commitment and dedication if God would help them through it.

As a result, missionary work was a high priority.   Just before he left on his mission to Brazil, he met his wife-to-be, Carol Lois Rasmussen, while he was a fishing guide at Yellowstone National Park.  They were married on June 5, 1958, in the Salt Lake Temple after he returned from his mission and the day before she graduated from Brigham Young University.  They are parents of seven children.

After Elder Hillam completed his studies at BYU, he moved his family to Chicago, where he was a dental student at Northwestern University.  Even with heavy church responsibilities — he was a counselor in the Chicago Heights Ward bishopric while a student — he graduated with honors with a doctorate in dental surgery.

After two years practicing as a dentist in Idaho Falls, he and his family went back to Northwestern, where he received a degree in orthodontics.  Then he set up an orthodontics practice in Idaho Falls.  He also was a counselor in the Idaho Falls 28th Ward bishopric.

Elder Hillam was serving as president of the Idaho Falls Idaho South Stake when he was called as president of the Portugal Lisbon Mission.  He was also a regional representative in Portugal and again in Idaho, as well as a regional welfare agent and a counselor in the Idaho Falls South Stake presidency.
Professionally, Elder Hillam was president of the Idaho Falls Dental Society, Idaho State Orthodontic Society and the Rocky Mountain Society of Orthodontists.  He was president of the Teton Peaks Council for the Boy Scouts of America.  He also received the Omicron Kappa Upsilon Honorary Dental Award. 
Elder Hillam spoke five times in general conference.  In his last talk, in the Saturday morning session of the April 2000 conference, he spoke of the need for the young people of the church to learn the lessons needed to become leaders.

"I pray that you young people will develop a reverence for sacred things, a respect for your elders and a willingness to keep the commandments," he said.  "I pray that you will learn to know of the Savior and have an ever-growing understanding of His Atonement."

Funeral plans are pending.

Elder Ronald E. Poelman dies at 83

From the Deseret News:

By Joseph Walker and Tom Hatch, Deseret News

SALT LAKE CITY — Elder Ronald E. Poelman , an emeritus general authority of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and former member of the church's First Quorum of the Seventy, died Saturday at his home in Salt Lake City of causes incident to aging.  He was 83.


Elder Poelman was called to the Seventy in April 1978.  He was first counselor in the Sunday School general presidency from October 1979 to July 1981 and second counselor from August 1992 onward. 

He was in the Presidency of the Seventy from October 1986 through October 1989.
 
He also was a counselor in the North America Southeast, North America Southwest, North America Central and Utah South area presidencies.  He received emeritus status at the October 1998 general conference.

Other church assignments included managing director in the Family History Department, chairman and chief executive officer of the Development Board, chairman of the Deseret Trust Co. board of directors and director of the Deseret Gym.

At the time of his call to the Seventy, he was vice president, corporate secretary and a director of Consolidated Freightways in San Francisco.  He spent 26 years with Consolidated.

When Elder Poelman was called to the Seventy, he was the gospel doctrine teacher in the Los Altos 3rd Ward in the Los Altos California Stake.
 
"It seemed unlikely to me that a Sunday School teacher would be called as a general authority," Elder Poelman said in a Church News interview after his sustaining to the Seventy. "But when President (Spencer W.) Kimball asked me, I had no hesitation whatsoever."

"I love to teach, and I particularly love to teach from the scriptures.  The gospel doctrine class has been ideal for my church service," he told the Ensign, a church magazine.

Elder Poelman spoke in general conference six times.  In his last conference address, given at the April 1998 general conference, he said living the law of tithing is a sacred privilege.

He was born on May 10, 1928, in Salt Lake City, the eldest of six children of Hendrik Poelman and Ella May Perkins Poelman, and graduated from East High in 1945.  He received a bachelor of science in history from the University of Utah in 1953, his juris doctorate from the U. in 1955 and in 1965 graduated from the Harvard University Graduate School of Business Administration's Advanced Management Program.

He was a member of the Utah Bar Association.

He served a mission to the Netherlands from 1947 to 1949 and was a district president in Rotterdam.  He joined Consolidated in September 1955, serving as a salesman, then an assistant to the vice president and director of commerce before becoming a vice president.

On March 30, 1950, he married Clair Howell Stoddard in the Salt Lake Temple.  They were the parents of three daughters and a son. Clair died May 5, 1979.  He married Dr. Anne G. Osborn on June 29, 1982.

The Poelmans began their married life in Long Beach, Calif., where Elder Poelman attended Long Beach State College and was an early morning seminary teacher and Sister Poelman taught school.

In other church service, he was a bishopric counselor in the Palo Alto Ward, a high councilor in the Palo Alto Stake, bishop of the Stanford Ward and a counselor in the Palo Alto Stake presidency.

In civic life, he was a rehabilitation counselor for the American Cancer Society, active in the Boy Scouts of America and a director of Junior Achievement of Bay Area Inc.  He also has been director of the United Way of the Great Salt Lake Area and on the board of governors of the Salt Lake Area Chamber of Commerce.

Funeral services will be held Tuesday, Nov. 22, at noon at the Salt Lake Emigration Stake center, 589 E. 18th Avenue, Salt Lake City.  A public viewing will be held from 6-8 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 21, at Larkin Mortuary, 260 E. South Temple, and Tuesday morning at the stake center from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m.

In lieu of flowers, Elder Poelman and his wife, Anne, have asked that donations be made to the LDS Church's Perpetual Education Fund.

LDS Church History no. 4 - The Seventies Hall

Seventies Hall in Nauvoo, Illinois

The Seventies occupy a special place in Church hierarchy, namely firstly and foremost as missionaries.  As such, it is the only Priesthood office to have it's own specific building in any city in any era of Church history.  For example, both the Quorum of the Twelve and the First Presidency have offices in the Church Office Building in Salt Lake City, but the Quorums of the Seventy are the only Quorums to have a building specifically for them.

This building - the Seventies Hall in Nauvoo, IL - was completed in July 1844, and was dedicated in December of that same year by President Brigham Young.  It is also interesting to note that it was in this building that the famous meeting on 8 August 1844 took place, where Sidney Rigdon, devoid of the Spirit of the Lord, claimed guardianship of the Church, but was rejected (see Stanley B. Kimball, "Heber C. Kimball and Family, the Nauvoo Years," BYU Studies, Vol. 15, Number 4, Summer 1975, p. 471).

The main floor was used as a lecture hall and Chapel for Church meetings, as it is still used today.  The pulpit is curved, you will notice, because in those days it was more common for speakers to speak off-the-cuff, whereas today one needs a place for notes; hence today's rectangular pulpits.

The upper floor housed a library and museum containing artifacts brought back by missionaries returning from their missions, but now houses a museum of artifacts found during archeological digs.

During the dedicatory prayer, President Brigham Young stated,

We ask thee, our Father, to accept the dedication of our hearts this morning, and may we feel the prelude of that power and authority with which thy servants shall be clothed, when they shall go forth and open the door of salvation to the nations and kingdoms of the earth; even thy servants, the Seventies, upon whom the burden of thy kingdom does rest, and to whom the keys of the same shall be committed from time to time. (Dean C. Jessee, “The John Taylor Nauvoo Journal: January 1845–September 1845” (1983), BYU Studies, Vol. 23, Summer 1983, 7-9). 

As I read this, I feel a twinge of guilt because I only listen to the Quorum of the Twelve or the First Presidency during General Conference, but I feel to repent of all my sins.  I will make it a habit to listen to all the Brethren, including and especially the Seventies, because they are they key to this work; it is they to whom the Twelve and First Presidency go to for ministerial help, and none else.  They, therefore, hold a special place within the Lord's Church and in His sight.

President Young also said, "Help us, O Lord to separate ourselves from all iniquity, that evil doers may
not exist in our midst, but may this people become a holy people, peculiar to thyself, to show forth thy praise in all the world" (Ibid.).  This is my prayer.  In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.