Saturday, October 3, 2009

A Role 'Model'

I was walking with Mom and Dad down the back wall of the new Church History Library and they had the covers of a bunch of Church magazines framed on the wall. Mom said, "Hey, your dad is in that one". It was the July 1960 Improvement Era (forerunner to The Ensign). We found it in an article about sharing the Gospel in the Armed Services:


Dad said he was there weekends for the Army Reserves at Fort Douglas. The photographer was in Dad's ward and had an assignment for the Church Magazines. This was before Dad's mission. I hoped the Improvement Era had kept their photos. I did a little digging and found a bunch more in the Archives collection (the photos weren't listed as associated with the magazines, just something like 'unidentified servicemen, 1930-1970'):


Above, cropped from one below. A similar but different shot than the one used for the magazine. Intriguing research, as at least one shot is absent from the set I found.

Above, the chaplain appears to be getting worked up as he is motion blurry. Dad is just above the preacher's bible.


This reminds me of the engravings of religious revival times, the chaplain is essaying to convict them of their sins.

The one above ended up in the visitor's center on Temple Square. Dad is sharing a religious pamphlet. The guy on the right, Ron Hammer, ended up being in Mom's mission.

My theory is that Dad is contemplating sharing the religious tract. There is another I didn't include where Hammer is contemplating the tract Dad shared (I believe it is "The Plan of Salvation" by Elder John Morgan).


8 comments:

Ken said...

Wow. What a find. I don't remember seeing any pictures of him in uniform before!

g said...

the coolest post ever!

brenda said...

Impressive research, holy cow! Those are a treasure. Dad's got a cute smirk.

Gail said...

How cool is that!

Paul said...

great find!!!

Neil said...

I think in the photo sitting on the cot he's contemplating how many days until he can go on leave.
These are fabulous. THanks Carl!

brenda said...

Carl, we were all reminiscing on this awesome post, and missing you guys! Happy Thanksgiving, hope your family is having a great one!

Annette said...

Cool post!

Hey I was trying to find your address to send you a x-mas card.... could you email it to me?
Thanks,
Annette & Scott Davis
netnet4me@yahoo.com

(In case your memory is fuzzy- like mine- Scott and Velvet were friends from highschool. Annette is Dane Christensen's little sister. Small world!)