Funeral services will be at noon Thursday for M. Lynn Bennion, 95, former superintendent of the Salt Lake City School District, who died July 30, 1998, at his Salt Lake home.
The services for Mr. Bennion, who served 24 years as superintendent of the district beginning in 1944 and who later was the first executive secretary for 10 years of what is now the Utah School Superintendents Association, will be in the 11th LDS Ward chapel. The church building is located at 951 E. 100 South.Friends may call from 6 to 8 p.m. Wednesday at Larkin Sunset Lawn Mortuary, 2350 E. 1300 South, and from 10:30 a.m. to 11:45 a.m. Thursday at the church. Burial will be in Wasatch Lawn Memorial Park.
Mr. Bennion "was a very professional, dignified and sincere individual, highly respected as an educator and a champion for doing everything he could for the children of the state of Utah," said Steve Peterson, executive director of the Utah School Superintendents Association. "He's one of the giants in education in the history of the state."
When Mr. Bennion joined the association, it was known as the Utah Society of School Superintendents.
Mr. Bennion, who began his educational career as a seminary teacher in Kamas, Summit County, and who in 1936 was appointed supervisor of seminaries for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, comes from a family of educators.
His father, Milton Bennion, was dean of the College of Education at the University of Utah. Milton Bennion Hall at the U. bears his name.
An elementary school at 429 S. 8th East in the Salt Lake district is named for Mr. Bennion, and an education administration fellowship at the U., is named in his honor. The name of his brother, Lowell Bennion, graces a service center at the U.
His son, John W. Bennion, was Salt Lake District superintendent from 1985 to 1994 and is now professor of urban education at the U. and director of the Utah Urban School Alliance.
Jan Keller, former district administrative assistant, who worked as Mr. Bennion's secretary for eight years beginning in 1960, said she considered him a "true scholar. I admired how he thought things through. He was a very benevolent person."
She said Mr. Bennion had a gift for keeping the atmosphere light as the school district worked through thorny issues.
Toward the end of Bennion's career, people of diverse cultural backgrounds became vocal about the wants and needs of their children.
"Sometimes, there were marches on the board offices. I watched him deal with these changes and I was quite amazed. He came from a more traditional background and things were changing around him. He was adapting to it and looking ahead in a very humane way," she said.