George Eugene England, noted Mormon scholar, Shakespeare expert, literary critic, poet and teacher, recently passed away in Provo of brain cancer. Gene was a unique, charismatic personality — brilliant and thoughtful, a man of ideas, yet sensitive and gentle to everyone he met.
He was 68, but I never knew anyone who looked so remarkably young and handsome for such a long time. Over a very productive life, he retained a lean build, a mop of often unruly brown hair, a boyish, smooth face and an energy level that made him race around like a talk-show host.
His pretty wife, Charlotte, popped up with gray hair years before he did. His response: "Maybe if I got some gray hair I could get some respect."
Although he attended the University of Utah as a math major, Gene switched to English literature and received a Ph.D. from Stanford University. Afterward, he taught at St. Olaf's College in Minnesota, where he became dean of academic affairs, then spent 22 years teaching in the English department of Brigham Young University, retiring in1998.
He quickly accepted a position as writer-in-residence at Utah Valley State College in Orem, where he headed a travel-abroad program for students to study theater in London. His most important pursuit, though, was to spearhead a Mormon Studies program, the first at any university. Gene was convinced that Mormon Studies is a legitimate field of academic interest.
Kerry Romesburg, non-Mormon president of Utah Valley State University, told me, "There was not a student who came in contact with Gene who was not absolutely motivated by him. He was an incredible teacher and artist. What a great man! We'll miss him and his influence.
"When he raised the issue of religious studies and of bringing in speakers with questioning points of view, it was a real stretch for our institution and our whole community. But Gene didn't shy away from controversy, and he was confident in his own faith. This program will continue."
Over a long career, Gene produced numerous books, essays and poems, most about the Mormon experience. While a member of an LDS bishopric at Stanford in 1966, he started, with G. Wesley Johnson, an LDS intellectual journal, called Dialogue: Journal of Mormon Thought, which continues to publish today.
In a prolific career, he wrote provocative and faith-promoting books, such as "Dialogues with Myself," "Making Peace," "The Quality of Mercy," "Why the Church is as True as the Gospel," a poetry collection called "Harvest" and "Brother Brigham."
Some of his more memorable essays include "Growing up Mormon," "Are Mormons Christians?" "Can Nations Love Their Enemies?" "Blessing the Chevrolet," "The Hosannah Shout in Washington, D. C.," and many others. His two most influential mentors were Lowell L. Bennion, a great Mormon humanist, teacher and writer, and Marion Duff Hanks, LDS general authority emeritus, both of whom taught him at the U.'s LDS Institute, and both of whom set a lifetime example of service. Like them, Gene and Charlotte spent lots of time under the viaduct instead of in the ivory tower.
As with his teaching, Gene's writing is down-to-earth and non-threatening. He made friends easily, and today a legion of followers continue to read his thoughtful, idealistic essays. He couldn't have done any of this, of course, without Charlotte Ann Hawkins, the girl of his dreams, with whom he fell in love at East High School.
She told me that when they both became U. students, Gene asked her to a casual "hello dance." She wore a skirt, blouse and ankle socks but was thoroughly embarrassed when everyone else showed up in formal dress. Gene insisted they stay. Soon, says Charlotte, "A photographer took our picture, because he said we were having more fun than anyone else on the floor.
"We continued to enjoy dancing through the years. Even the day before he went into the hospital, we danced at a wedding — and when he was in a wheelchair, we whirled around in the hall."
After getting married at the age of 19, they served an LDS mission together in Samoa. Charlotte says, "We thought I would stay home. About a month after Gene was interviewed, we both got a mission call. Gene said the Lord knew he couldn't make it without me. On a mission, you can't be very selfish. You share everything in an effort to serve."
In their years of raising six children, Gene and Charlotte were completely "intertwined with each other's ideas." Charlotte recalls that all during their married life they welcomed a variety of people into their home, to live with them for months or years at a time, including penniless students, immigrants from Poland, relatives and homeless people. They also had many "soirees" with faculty and students.
Charlotte says, "He had this wry sense of humor, even when he was sick. He had such a zest for life. There was a movie he really liked, that he watched over and over — "Hot Rock," with Robert Redford. He thoroughly got into it every time."
When the Englands rented a beach house in California, there was a huge tree they called "the story-telling tree." Charlotte remembers "the grandkids climbing into the tree with Gene and sitting in the branches while he told the story of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. He always made it very scary."
Charlotte's two favorites of Gene's books are "Why the Church Is as True as the Gospel" and "Dialogues with Myself."
"He was always so concerned about peace, and wanted to bring it about everywhere — in the church and throughout the world. Next year, he would have taught a class on peace at UVSC. In fact, he enjoyed teaching at UVSC so much that he planned to stay there for another 10 years."
Even without his physical presence, Gene England's legacy is secure.
E-mail: dennis@desnews.com