SALT LAKE CITY — Retirement is not a term that fits S. Michael Wilcox, but he is leaving his position as an instructor at the Salt Lake University Institute of Religion on Jan. 8 after 21 years there.Yet he does not shy away from the word. "I will be retiring," he says, "but I always have to stay busy. I have a driven personality …"Indeed, he has that, so what is he going to do?"I need to learn a little bit better how to relax," he says.But deep inside, he knows that probably won't happen. His goal, then?"I want to have a relationship-driven life."Wilcox sees his life to this point as agenda-driven."I have lived a very pressured life," he says. "I am looking forward to spending some unpressured time with my wife, my grandchildren and my children."He will not be without work. He has contracted with a local travel company to do tours for the next two years. At the age of 60, his life may not be as structured, but he will probably be just as busy. "I have more than 10 tours lined up," he says about the coming year.In addition, "I am continuing to write," he says (he is involved with projects with Deseret Book), "and I'll continue as much as I can to teach adult classes in the valley." Those earnings are contributed to the Perpetual Education Fund."I am a great believer in the Perpetual Education Fund. We do it (teach the adult classes) for the Perpetual Education Fund."There will always be people who want to enroll in his classes because of his presentations and knowledge of gospel doctrine. But he is quick to say, "The scriptures have the power, not the teacher."Wilcox, reared mainly by his mother in Southern California, says he spent a lot of time at the beach. Every summer, he would go to his uncle's ranch in Nevada to gain a fatherly influence. His uncle taught him a great work ethic as well as how to fish.But fishing and the beach life never worked their way into his adult life. "I am too impatient," he says.Reflecting on his fatherless childhood, Wilcox says, "My Father in Heaven filled a lot of that void. Things happened to me as a boy that I assumed happened to everybody, and it took me a long time to realize that they were very unique and wonderful experiences, where God was filling that gap for me."So I had a wonderful father growing up in the sense that I felt very close to my Father in Heaven and … things would happen that I took for granted and not realizing that it was his mercy and blessing me with experiences and love and assurances that were really fairly unique. I felt that he was always aware of me."As a youngster, Wilcox liked to attend talks by John Goddard, a Southern California adventurer/explorer. "I wanted his job," Wilcox says.He has followed that passion through the years by traveling around the world, and one of his planned trips next year is to Antarctica.Travel is one of his great loves. "I enjoy very much taking people to countries (and) showing them the beauty of that country and all the positive things."There is nothing like travel. God really has worked with a lot of people in a lot of places. I have heard his voice in so many areas … He has spoken to every people and given them great gifts. We can receive his gifts to us through the nations and through the arts and cultures of the worlds."And how did he wind up in the Church Educational System, where he had a career that spanned 37 years?He only remembers wanting to be a teacher. "In my heart of hearts," he says, "I knew I would end up teaching." His mother was a teacher. His two sisters were teachers. And his father was a popular teacher at East High School in Salt Lake City.Though his father was an inactive Mormon during Wilcox's youth, he says he was able to bring his father back to enjoy his (Michael's) children and grandchildren. His father's recent death "hit me harder than I thought it would."So it was only natural that Wilcox would become a teacher. He just wasn't sure what he was going to teach. "If I can't teach the scriptures," he says, "I could teach English."Wilcox explains the melding of his love for English and the scriptures: "My mother read to me as a little boy. She taught me to read voraciously. I am constantly reading. I have always loved words and ideas and how ideas are expressed through words."Because I love reading and I love ideas, I love literature and the best literature, and the best ideas and the greatest characters and lives you can study are those of the scriptures, so I think I naturally gravitated to the scriptures."There was a natural connection there — the scriptures being the greatest literature, and I probably apply ideas and training that I received majoring in English to the scriptures, and it helped me to find insights that I wouldn't have found otherwise."Why does he get involved in multitasking on so many projects?"I have discovered that if I just get started, the spirit of the thing just takes over."He says that applies to writing a book or teaching a class. "The wonders, the beauties and the truths of the scriptures just start to flow into my mind, and I just love sharing and imparting. It's never been hard for me to get involved and to throw my soul into something."And when I know that the ideas and truths have resonated in the hearts and minds of people and they come away as better people, there is a feeling of satisfaction."We should leave the world a better place than we find it."When he leaves the institute, Wilcox says he will miss the "systematic, sequential presentation of scripture. I will miss the university atmosphere … just the whole sense of a place of learning where people come to learn. And I will miss the secretaries."He looks forward to spending more time in the Family History Library and going on hikes in the wilderness with his wife, Laura."Maybe I will learn how to relax," he says, sighing with half-hearted resolve.
E-mail: wjewkes@desnews.com