REXBURG, Idaho — Charging him to "lead the university to new heights of honor, achievement and recognition," President Gordon B. Hinckley formally installed Kim B. Clark as the 15th president of BYU-Idaho Tuesday.
"You follow and enhance the tradition of those pioneers who long ago came to this isolated area, plowed the virgin soil and settled these valleys," President Hinckley told the 56-year-old former dean of the Harvard Business School.
The president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints presided at and spoke at inaugural events in a packed auditorium at the church-owned university in Rexburg.
He was accompanied by his counselors in the First Presidency, President Thomas S. Monson and President James E. Faust. Also present were Elders Richard G. Scott, Robert D. Hales, Henry B. Eyring and David A. Bednar of the church's Quorum of the Twelve, along with other church leaders.
Both Elders Eyring and Bednar are former presidents of Ricks College, which became BYU-Idaho in 2001.
Other dignitaries attending the event included Idaho Gov. Dirk Kempthorne and Harvard President Lawrence H. Summers, both of whom spoke.
In his address, President Hinckley said, "Education is part of our religion."
Explaining that knowledge, understanding and education are eternal, the church president declared: "It is, for this reason, that this church spends millions of its resources on educating its young people. Our annual budget for education is the largest single budget we have in the church, with the exception of expenditures for building and maintaining houses of worship as we grow and advance across the world."
Where the church cannot maintain universities, there is a program of religious institutes with facilities near campuses of almost every major educational institution in America, President Hinckley added.
Directing some of his comments to Clark, President Hinckley said, "We are so richly blessed to have you presiding over this institution. You are a man of great learning. You are an individual with a demonstrated humanitarian spirit. You are recognized for your abilities across the world. Now you have been kind enough to come here, to build this university."
In his inaugural response, Clark, who was accompanied by his wife, Sue, summarized the mission of BYU-Idaho with two words: disciple and leader.
"The first is: disciple," President Clark said. "Our mission, our very purpose, is to educate, develop and prepare disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ. This purpose is deeply rooted in this university. In a way that I have found remarkable, this is a student-centered university. It is that way by divine appointment. The Lord watches over this university in a direct and powerful way . . .
"The second word is: leader. When I use that word I have in mind leadership with a small L. This is a kind of leadership we need in every part of every kind of organization in society. We want our students to provide the kind of leadership that serves and inspires — first and foremost in their families and in the church, in their communities and in their work."
Earlier this year, the news that the dean of the Harvard Business School was coming to Rexburg, Idaho, to lead BYU-Idaho traveled the nation's academic circles. Summers said the news was "bittersweet" for Harvard "but wonderful news for your university, and for all who care about American higher education and the character of those who lead its institutions."
Clark and Summers are longtime friends, having been graduate students together some 30 years ago.
The new BYU-Idaho president, who is LDS, received his bachelor's, master's and doctorate degrees in economics from Harvard University. He became a member of the faculty at the Harvard Business School in 1978. On June 6, the church announced Clark would be the new president of BYU-Idaho.
He succeeds Robert M. Wilkes, who served as interim president when Elder Bednar was called to the church's Quorum of the Twelve in October 2004.
E-mail: julied@desnews.com