Milton Bennion
Born: 7 June 1870
Called as First Assistant Superintendent in the Sunday School: 1934
Called as General Superintendent of the Sunday School: 1943
Released: 1949
Died: 5 April 1953
Called as First Assistant Superintendent in the Sunday School: 1934
Called as General Superintendent of the Sunday School: 1943
Released: 1949
Died: 5 April 1953
Biographical Articles
Biographical Encyclopedia, Volume 4
Relief Society Magazine, March 1943, Milton Bennion, General Superintendent Deseret Sunday School Union
Instructor, April 1943, The New Superintendency - Milton Bennion
Instructor, July 1949, Milton Bennion
Instructor, November 1949, Milton Bennion, Friend to Many
Improvement Era, December 1949, Retiring Superintendent of the Sunday School Milton Bennion
Instructor, October 1970, Inspiration from the Lives of Eight Men - Milton Bennion
Relief Society Magazine, March 1943, Milton Bennion, General Superintendent Deseret Sunday School Union
Instructor, April 1943, The New Superintendency - Milton Bennion
Instructor, July 1949, Milton Bennion
Instructor, November 1949, Milton Bennion, Friend to Many
Improvement Era, December 1949, Retiring Superintendent of the Sunday School Milton Bennion
Instructor, October 1970, Inspiration from the Lives of Eight Men - Milton Bennion
Jenson, Andrew. "Bennion, Milton." Biographical Encyclopedia. Volume 4. pg. 205-206.
BENNION, Milton, First Assistant in the General Superintendency of the L. D. S. Sunday Schools, was born at Taylorsville, Utah, June 7, 1870, a son of John Bennion and Mary Turpin. He was baptized Aug. 1, 1878, by Archibald Frame, was ordained to the office of a Deacon at the age of 12 years, a Teacher at 15, and a Priest at 18 years of age. He was ordained an Elder Nov. 8, 1889, by William Bennion, and a Seventy Nov. 11, 1889, by Apostle John Henry Smith, and set apart for a mission to New Zealand. While on this mission
Elder Bennion labored most of the time in the Whangarei District, over which he presided in an efficient manner until the close of the year 1892, when he returned home. The journey from Salt Lake to New Zealand had been across the Pacific Ocean. The return journey was made via Australia, Ceylon, Egypt, Palestine and various parts of Europe; thus he circumnavigated the globe. Being one of the leading educators of the state, he is deeply interested in Sunday School work and became a member of the Deseret Sunday School Union Board in 1909, and upon the reorganization of the general superintendency Oct. 30, 1934, was selected as First Assistant to Supt. George D. Pyper. Elder Bennion acted as principal of the Southern Branch of the Utah State Normal School at Cedar City from 1897 to 1900, was a member of the Utah State Board of Education from 1898 to 1900, an assistant professor in the University of Utah in 1901-1904, and professor of philosophy at the same institution from 1904 to 1913. Since 1913 he has been Dean of the School of Education and professor of philosophy and education since 1914, and director of the summer sessions in the University. He received the degree of B. S. from the University of Utah in 1897; M. A. from Columbia University in 1901, and the honorary degree of Ed. D. from the University of Utah in 1931. He acted as chairman of the committee on character education of the National Council of Education and of the National Education Association from 1920 to 1926, has been a member of the National Council of Education since 1915 and is a fellow in the American Association for the advancement of science.
On June 22, 1898, Elder Bennion married Cora Lindsay in the Salt Lake Temple. To them have been born the following sons and daughters: Claire (Mrs. Wm. L. Jones), Maurine (Mrs. E. L. Folsom), Milton Lindsay (M. Lynn), Wayne L., Lowell L., Ruth, Grant Madson, Frances, Margaret and Vaughan L. Ruth and Margaret died in infancy. All the others, except Vaughn, are now adults and graduates of the University of Utah.
BENNION, Milton, First Assistant in the General Superintendency of the L. D. S. Sunday Schools, was born at Taylorsville, Utah, June 7, 1870, a son of John Bennion and Mary Turpin. He was baptized Aug. 1, 1878, by Archibald Frame, was ordained to the office of a Deacon at the age of 12 years, a Teacher at 15, and a Priest at 18 years of age. He was ordained an Elder Nov. 8, 1889, by William Bennion, and a Seventy Nov. 11, 1889, by Apostle John Henry Smith, and set apart for a mission to New Zealand. While on this mission
Elder Bennion labored most of the time in the Whangarei District, over which he presided in an efficient manner until the close of the year 1892, when he returned home. The journey from Salt Lake to New Zealand had been across the Pacific Ocean. The return journey was made via Australia, Ceylon, Egypt, Palestine and various parts of Europe; thus he circumnavigated the globe. Being one of the leading educators of the state, he is deeply interested in Sunday School work and became a member of the Deseret Sunday School Union Board in 1909, and upon the reorganization of the general superintendency Oct. 30, 1934, was selected as First Assistant to Supt. George D. Pyper. Elder Bennion acted as principal of the Southern Branch of the Utah State Normal School at Cedar City from 1897 to 1900, was a member of the Utah State Board of Education from 1898 to 1900, an assistant professor in the University of Utah in 1901-1904, and professor of philosophy at the same institution from 1904 to 1913. Since 1913 he has been Dean of the School of Education and professor of philosophy and education since 1914, and director of the summer sessions in the University. He received the degree of B. S. from the University of Utah in 1897; M. A. from Columbia University in 1901, and the honorary degree of Ed. D. from the University of Utah in 1931. He acted as chairman of the committee on character education of the National Council of Education and of the National Education Association from 1920 to 1926, has been a member of the National Council of Education since 1915 and is a fellow in the American Association for the advancement of science.
On June 22, 1898, Elder Bennion married Cora Lindsay in the Salt Lake Temple. To them have been born the following sons and daughters: Claire (Mrs. Wm. L. Jones), Maurine (Mrs. E. L. Folsom), Milton Lindsay (M. Lynn), Wayne L., Lowell L., Ruth, Grant Madson, Frances, Margaret and Vaughan L. Ruth and Margaret died in infancy. All the others, except Vaughn, are now adults and graduates of the University of Utah.
Reiser, A. Hamer. "Milton Bennion, General Superintendent Deseret Sunday School Union." Relief Society Magazine. March 1943. pg. 173.
Milton Bennion
General Superintendent Deseret Sunday School Union
A. Hamer Reiser Second Assistant General Superintendent
THE Sunday Schools of the Church are immeasurably benefited by the action of the First Presidency in appointing Milton Bennion to be general superintendent of the Deseret Sunday School Union.
Milton Bennion as a personality, apart from the honors and distinction he has earned, is an inspirational, faith-stimulating captain. I have known him intimately for twenty-five years. Never once have I known him to ask or advise anyone to do anything which he would not do himself. One takes from such a person a strong sense of confidence and courage born of rightness and justness.
He is the personification of unselfishness and of thoughtfulness for the welfare of others. His selflessness is the essence of his rich spirituality. In fact, he thinks and lives so much for others that he has forgotten himself into greatness.
He was vice-president of the University of Utah, Dean of the School of Education, and Professor of Philosophy and Education when he retired from the University. In recognition of his eminence and devotion, the University, in 1931, conferred upon him the honorary degree of Doctor of Education.
Long before this time he had earned recognition for scholarship with degrees from the University of Utah and Columbia, and he had distinguished himself in graduate study at Wisconsin and California.
MOST brilliant among the jewels which make his life rich and beautiful are his family and his family life. His wife, Cora Lindsay Bennion, was for years a devoted and beloved member of the General Board of the Relief Society. They have reared a wonderful family of children.
His experience in the service of the Church is wide and varied, and extends back into his early youth. As a missionary in New Zealand, an officer in priesthood quorums, teacher and executive in ward, stake, and general Sunday School work he has always given of his best effort.
His ideas and principles are sound and forward-looking. His plans for the Sunday Schools are progressive. They will be received with enthusiasm by the great army of Sunday School workers who are honored to be associated with him.
Milton Bennion
General Superintendent Deseret Sunday School Union
A. Hamer Reiser Second Assistant General Superintendent
THE Sunday Schools of the Church are immeasurably benefited by the action of the First Presidency in appointing Milton Bennion to be general superintendent of the Deseret Sunday School Union.
Milton Bennion as a personality, apart from the honors and distinction he has earned, is an inspirational, faith-stimulating captain. I have known him intimately for twenty-five years. Never once have I known him to ask or advise anyone to do anything which he would not do himself. One takes from such a person a strong sense of confidence and courage born of rightness and justness.
He is the personification of unselfishness and of thoughtfulness for the welfare of others. His selflessness is the essence of his rich spirituality. In fact, he thinks and lives so much for others that he has forgotten himself into greatness.
He was vice-president of the University of Utah, Dean of the School of Education, and Professor of Philosophy and Education when he retired from the University. In recognition of his eminence and devotion, the University, in 1931, conferred upon him the honorary degree of Doctor of Education.
Long before this time he had earned recognition for scholarship with degrees from the University of Utah and Columbia, and he had distinguished himself in graduate study at Wisconsin and California.
MOST brilliant among the jewels which make his life rich and beautiful are his family and his family life. His wife, Cora Lindsay Bennion, was for years a devoted and beloved member of the General Board of the Relief Society. They have reared a wonderful family of children.
His experience in the service of the Church is wide and varied, and extends back into his early youth. As a missionary in New Zealand, an officer in priesthood quorums, teacher and executive in ward, stake, and general Sunday School work he has always given of his best effort.
His ideas and principles are sound and forward-looking. His plans for the Sunday Schools are progressive. They will be received with enthusiasm by the great army of Sunday School workers who are honored to be associated with him.
Ashton, Wendell J. "The New Superintendency - Milton Bennion." Instructor. April 1943. pg. 177-179.
OUR NEW SUPERINTENDENT By Wendell J. Ashton Years of experience in Sunday School work, wisdom and scholarship at its best, and a pinch of good humor, too, come to the office of General Superintendent of the Deseret Sunday School Union with the appointment of Elder Milton Bennion. Dr. Bennion became the sixth General Superintendent Tuesday, March 2, 1943 at a reorganization conducted before the General Board by President David O. McKay of the First Presidency and Elder John A. Widtsoe of the Council of the Twelve, a Sunday School adviser. Elder Bennion was first assistant General Superintendent to the late Superintendent George D. Pyper, whom he succeeds as Associate Editor of The Instructor as well as Superintendent. Milton Bennion for many years has been a leading educator in a state which has ranked first in the nation in some aspects of higher education.[1] Of his pursuits, Who's Who In America (1942-43) writes in part: "Principal Southern Branch Utah State Normal School, 1897-1900; assistant professor of education, University of Utah, 1901- 02; assistant professor of Philosophy 1902- 04; and professor since 1904; dean of Education July 2, 1913-July, 1941; vice-president 1940-41. Member of State Board of Education, Utah, 1898-1900 . . . Chairman Utah State Welfare Commission, 1921-23; chairman, committee on character education, National Council of Education and National Educational Association (1921-25), chairman Group D, International Ideals, World Conference on Education, San Francisco, 1923. Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science, member National Education Association ( life ) , National Council of Education 1915-39, Western Philosophical Association, Phi Kappa Phi, Phi Delta Kappa . . . Author: Citizenship, An Introduction to Social Ethics, 1917, revised edition, 1925; Moral Teachings of the New Testament, 1928; New Frontiers for American Youth, 1939." For at least 44 years Superintendent Bennion has been giving the Sunday School, the Gospel teaching organization of the Church, the benefit of his rich background in educational and scriptural scholarship As early as 1898, while a young principal he assisted in the organization of classes in the Cedar City (Utah) Sunday School for the training of Sunday School teachers. In June, 1901 he was sustained a member of the Granite Stake Sunday School Board, and in the same year was named by the General Board as superintendent of the "University Sunday School," conducted at L. D. S. University for Mormon students coming to Salt Lake City to pursue higher education. During 1904-08 he was again a member of the Granite Stake Sunday School Board, and 1908-09 was assistant superintendent in charge of classwork in the same stake. He was sustained a member of the General Board October 26, 1909, and has served for more than 33 years, since October 30, 1934 as first assistant general superintendent. The new general superintendent was born at Taylorsville, Utah, June 7, 1870, a son of John Bennion and Mary Turpin Bennion. Milton Bennion entered the University of Deseret (Utah) at 15 years of age, ad it was there he developed the thirst for scripture study which has remained with him to this day. He took several classes under John R. Park, then president of the University and since called its "father." A chapel service consisting of scripture reading and prayer was held daily, President Park conducting each Monday. As a lad of 16, Milton had developed a taste for such weighty books as Parley P. Pratt's Key to Theology and Orson Pratt's Great First Cause or Self-Moving Forces of the Universe and Absurdities of Immaterialism. When 19 years of age, Elder Bennion was called on a mission to New Zealand, and it was there that his meditations really began in earnest. Shortly after his arrival, he was assigned alone to a remote Maori village on the northern coast He lived in a small native hut, with nothing for light but a door and a small hole for a window. A terrific storm swept the island. For ten days and nights the young missionary sat alone in the dark hut, keeping the door and "window" closed to escape the torrents. His only visitor was a native who called twice each day with a pan of potatoes for food. And he emerged from the ordeal with the same subtle sense of humor that has always flavored his wisdom! Superintendent Bennion is a teacher who lives his lessons. The 176-page bulletin on character education prepared in 1925 by a Utah educational committee of which he was chairman, won national acclaim. Dr. Bennion 's family is an example of the fruits of sound character training. Of his ten children, seven are living. His oldest son, Dr. M. Lynn Bennion, is supervisor of Church seminaries; another son, Dr. Lowell L. Bennion, is director of the Salt Lake City Institute of Religion (L.D.S.) at the University of Utah. A third son, Grant M., is representative for Utah and Washington of Ginn and Co., Publishers, and was former basketball captain at the University of Utah, of which he is a graduate. The youngest son, Vaughn L., recently graduated from the University, where he was all-Rocky Mountain Conference basketball center and is now attending officers training school for the Marines. Also all college graduates, the three living daughters are Claire (Mrs. Wm. L. Jones) who has an M.A. degree, Maurine (Mrs. Leonard Folsom) and Francis (Mrs. Elmo Morgan). Two daughters, Margaret and Ruth, died in infancy, and a fifth son, Wayne L., associate professor of business administration at Utah State Agricultural College, died recently. As one educator once commented, "There isn't a scrub in Dean Bennion's family." His family has been reared on a farm in the Forest Dale section of Salt Lake City, where Superintendent Bennion still enjoys raising his own carrots, tomatoes, asparagus and other vegetables. His sons recall how their father read to them as boys, from the Bible each night. Through the years, Superintendent Bennion has been blessed with the companionship of a good wife, Cora Lindsay Bennion, for 18 years a member of the General Board of the Relief Society. Dr. Bennion, who has contributed to Church and educational publications since his missionary days, characteristically wrote in the Utah Educational Review, February, 1943: "The chief reward of the practice of any vocation is the consciousness of having rendered valuable service to fellowmen. ... Vocations are to be rated highest that render the greatest service to mankind." Nearly 400,000 Sunday School workers and students welcome their new chief, an eminent educator and a thorough-living Latter-day Saint. [1] Figures for 1936 show Utah leads all states of the Union in per capita persons between 18 and 21 years of age, inclusive, enrolled in institutions of higher learning, with 256 per 1,000. California, with 225 per 1000, is second, and Washington, with 187 per 1000, is third. (From Biennial Survey of Education [1937, Vol. 2], published by U. S. Dept. of Interior, Office of Education.) |
GEORGE R. HILL
SUPT. MILTON BENNION
ALBERT HAMER REISER
|
Ashton, Wendell J. "Milton Bennion." Instructor. July 1949. pg. 308-312.
Milton Bennion
Wendell J. Ashton
“An hour with that man is like an hour in church."
Such was the comment of an eminent educator[1] after a visit with Milton Bennion.
No better lines could describe the man who serves as general superintendent of the Sunday Schools of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
For nearly four score years Milton Bennion has been associated with the Sunday Schools of the Church. For six years he has guided them, during a time when the organization has added more members than at any similar time in its history 150,000 — from about 335,000 to almost half a million). It has been a period that has seen more printed helps issued by the general board for the benefit of the individual teacher in the classroom than at any other time of equal length since Latter-day Saint Sunday Schools began.
Milton Bennion's first Sunday School experiences came at Taylorsville, a little farming community in Salt Lake Valley where he was born on June 7, 1870.[2] There were no graded classes in that Sabbath School, then, and at least one Sunday School in the vicinity was known to have sheep in its treasury about that time. Milton, the boy, sat with the grownups; and the Bible was passed around the circle. "Tickets," containing scriptural verses, were distributed each Sunday, and with them pupils were drilled in memory exercises.
About the time Milton was getting his first taste of Sunday School, his father, John Bennion, a livestock man, died. Six sons and a daughter were left with his widow, Mary Turpin Bennion, a semi-invalid.
It was as a youth of 18, while he was looking after the farm, that something happened to Milton Bennion that changed the whole course of his life. His hopes had been high. He wanted to be a lawyer or a physician. But then it was that he was asked to teach the four beginners' grades in Taylorsville's rock school house. He had had no training in teaching, although he had been a student at the University of Deseret. He took the job, and has been associated with teaching ever since.
At 19, Milton enrolled at L.D.S. College. And while he sat in a class in the old adobe Social Hall (said to be the first playhouse west of the Missouri) he was handed an envelope. Looking at the return address, "Box B" (the First Presidency's), his brother Heber, sitting nearby, commented, "There's a mission for you." It was.
For more than three years, Milton Bennion was a missionary in New Zealand. He worked with the Sunday Schools there, and presided over Whangarei District. Though Milton was but twenty at the time, one day a Maori man, about fifty years old, with his wife, came to him for counsel. They had nine children, but their marriage was in peril. Sitting on a whalebone in a dirt floored hut, the young man reasoned with them. Their marriage was saved. Thousands of people—students, teachers, Sunday School leaders, rich and poor, and dark and light-skinned people — have learned the worth of this modest man's deep wisdom, his crisp sense of humor.
Returning from New Zealand, the missionary went back to school. Four years later he emerged from University of Utah with a B.S. degree and teacher's diplomas for both high school and elementary school.
The next year (1897) found him principal of the Southern Branch of Utah State Normal School, at Cedar City, Utah. Fifty years later, he could recall the number of pupils enrolled during each of the three years he directed the school: 119, 160 and 200. During his second year there, he and a teaching associate, Howard R. Driggs, organized a teacher training class in connection with the faculty of Cedar City Sunday School. They met after Sunday School in the two-story schoolhouse of "native" yellowish pink brick. Elders Bennion and Driggs, who were later to serve together on the General Board for 39 years, used the regular class period time for observation.
In the fall of 1900, Milton Bennion left Utah to study for his master's degree at Columbia University in New York City. But before he departed, he received a patriarchal blessing from one of the greatest educators and Sunday School leaders the Church has produced, Karl G. Maeser, then first assistant general superintendent of the Deseret Sunday School Union. It was the first such blessing Elder Maeser gave. He died a few months afterward. The influence of his words, however, never left Milton Bennion.
Returning from Columbia, Milton Bennion was named to the faculty of the University of Utah, where he remained for forty years. There he later served as dean of the School of Education for 28 years and vice-president of the University in 1940-41. On his return from the East, he was also chosen for the Granite Stake Sunday School board. Shortly thereafter, he was. called to serve as superintendent of the University Sunday School, meeting in Barratt Hall, for out-of-town students of the L.D.S. University and the University of Utah. His first assistant was J. Reuben Clark, Jr., who had succeeded him as principal of the Southern Branch at Cedar City. Elder Clark at that time was teaching at the L.D.S. Business College. The University Sunday School faculty also included two well-known scholars, Dr. James E. Talmage and Nephi L. Morris.
After three years as superintendent, Milton Bennion returned to Granite Stake Sunday School Board. Granite Stake Union Meetings were noted in those days for their quality and high attendance.
In 1909, at 39, Milton Bennion was elevated to the general board. He was assigned to supervise teaching of youth in the adolescent years.
After eight years as first assistant to the late General Superintendent George D. Pyper, Dr. Bennion, on March 2, 1943, became general superintendent of all Sunday Schools of the Church.
It was a difficult time to take over the helm of this vast organization. The world was at war, the worst in history. In Europe, Sunday Schools had been disrupted amid bursts of bombs. In America, there was travel and paper rationing, along with the other wartime restrictions. Union meetings and stake Sunday School conventions had been suspended. With some men and women joining the armed forces and others moving to war industry centers, there was a great turnover in Sunday School personnel (estimated at 75 per cent in 1944, compared with the normal 20 per cent).
Not long after he had become general superintendent, with George R. Hill, Jr. as first assistant and A. Hamer Reiser as second assistant, the superintendency issued this message to the General Board:
"Manuals and teachers' supplements should be usable and helpful to all grades of L. D. S. Sunday Schools — the fortunately situated and also the less privileged—those well equipped with rooms, books, illustrative materials, and qualified teachers, and also those that lack these requirements . . . We must be realistic, recognize the facts, and make provision to meet the needs of every situation."
That thought has since been the keynote of the general board's efforts. One of the first changes wrought was the creation of teachers' supplements—providing much more help for the teacher in the classroom at no additional expense. Theretofore, supplementary helps for lessons for all departments had been carried in The Instructor. This meant, for example, that the first intermediate teacher was obliged to purchase a magazine containing about thirty pages of material (for other departments) for which she had no use. All these lesson helps were transferred from the magazine to teachers' supplements, one for each department. This transfer allowed much more space in The Instructor for additional lesson enrichment material besides other Sunday School features. The total yearly price of The Instructor and a teachers' supplement, under this plan, was $1.20—the same price as The Instructor had been.
Superintendent Bennion, in charge of the contents of the Sunday School magazine, also introduced other innovations: reducing the magazine size to its present purse or pocket size; publishing of original source material, such as the serial biographies of George Q. Cannon, Anthony W. Ivins, George A. Smith, Orson Pratt, and Ezra T. Benson; and series such as "The Dramatic Approach to Teaching," and "Healthful Living—A Part of Religious Education." More recently he has introduced lesson references to articles appearing in Church periodicals. The circulation of The Instructor during the first year after the change, jumped nearly 3,000—to 16,500, believed to be an all-time high up to that time.
But The Instructor and supplement innovations were only the beginning of a wave of new printed helps for the Sunday School teacher. A new teacher-training text, The Master's Art, by Howard R. Driggs, was issued. Pictures, including four-color ones for the first time, were used more generously in pupil manuals. They were also made more appealing with covers carrying more color and artistry than ever before. With the Primary Association, the Sunday School General Board prepared a 506-page children's story book, A Story To Tell. A new teacher training supplement was introduced, and, for the first time, Sunday Schools of the Church were given a librarian's handbook.
During Milton Bennion's superintendency, the General Board brought out an imposing parade of new picture sets to further assist gospel teaching. There was a set of 96 colored pictures on Church History and a set of colored pictures on the Old Testament and another on the New Testament. These pictures were produced in cooperation with the Deseret Book Company. There were also new picture sets with character-building subjects for the Junior Sunday Schools. All pictures were large—about eight by ten inches in size.
More general board helps were extended to mission Sunday Schools. Circular materials, beginning in 1944, went to branch superintendents, as well as to those in the wards. Home Sunday Schools were pushed, new courses being offered to them each year.
Changes came in Sunday School music. Song practice became song service, and reverential movement to classes replaced militaristic marching. A book of songs, prepared by Alexander Schreiner and Anna Johnson, was issued for tiny tots.
During Milton Bennion's superintendency, the General Board's attitude toward Junior Sunday Schools was changed. No longer were they organized because of housing limitations. They were created because they provided more development for young Latter-day Saints. Hundreds of them have burst into being since 1943. Suggestions regarding housing of Junior Sunday Schools were transmitted by the General Board to the Presiding Bishopric. Now meetinghouse blueprints provide facilities specially designed for little folk.
In 1943, "100% Sunday," an annual enlistment rally day, was announced by the General Board. It did much to stimulate greater attendance. For example, on this day one ward (Arlington, in Los Angeles) drew an attendance of 633, with a ward population of only 690; and an Idaho Falls Sunday School increased its attendance 45 per cent.
In all these and other innovations, Superintendent Bennion has been assisted by a large, able general board, numbering 48 in 1949—and by a quiet, intelligent little woman, his wife, Cora Lindsay Bennion, a mother of ten.
In 1944, the Utah Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters presented Milton Bennion its annual award for "outstanding achievement in arts and letters." In the field of letters, his Sunday School administration had produced sheaves of new help for the humble brown-skinned teacher in Syria as well as for the Ph.D. leading a gospel doctrine class in New York. His own spoken and written words had been few, but they had been golden—like scripture. In the arts, he had excelled in the sovereign of them all—the art of living.
[1] Henry Newman, Ph.D., leader of Brooklyn Ethical Culture Society.
[2] Since The Instructor carried a brief biography on Superintendent Bennion in April, 1943, this article attempts to portray some facets of his life and character not included therein.
Milton Bennion
Wendell J. Ashton
“An hour with that man is like an hour in church."
Such was the comment of an eminent educator[1] after a visit with Milton Bennion.
No better lines could describe the man who serves as general superintendent of the Sunday Schools of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
For nearly four score years Milton Bennion has been associated with the Sunday Schools of the Church. For six years he has guided them, during a time when the organization has added more members than at any similar time in its history 150,000 — from about 335,000 to almost half a million). It has been a period that has seen more printed helps issued by the general board for the benefit of the individual teacher in the classroom than at any other time of equal length since Latter-day Saint Sunday Schools began.
Milton Bennion's first Sunday School experiences came at Taylorsville, a little farming community in Salt Lake Valley where he was born on June 7, 1870.[2] There were no graded classes in that Sabbath School, then, and at least one Sunday School in the vicinity was known to have sheep in its treasury about that time. Milton, the boy, sat with the grownups; and the Bible was passed around the circle. "Tickets," containing scriptural verses, were distributed each Sunday, and with them pupils were drilled in memory exercises.
About the time Milton was getting his first taste of Sunday School, his father, John Bennion, a livestock man, died. Six sons and a daughter were left with his widow, Mary Turpin Bennion, a semi-invalid.
It was as a youth of 18, while he was looking after the farm, that something happened to Milton Bennion that changed the whole course of his life. His hopes had been high. He wanted to be a lawyer or a physician. But then it was that he was asked to teach the four beginners' grades in Taylorsville's rock school house. He had had no training in teaching, although he had been a student at the University of Deseret. He took the job, and has been associated with teaching ever since.
At 19, Milton enrolled at L.D.S. College. And while he sat in a class in the old adobe Social Hall (said to be the first playhouse west of the Missouri) he was handed an envelope. Looking at the return address, "Box B" (the First Presidency's), his brother Heber, sitting nearby, commented, "There's a mission for you." It was.
For more than three years, Milton Bennion was a missionary in New Zealand. He worked with the Sunday Schools there, and presided over Whangarei District. Though Milton was but twenty at the time, one day a Maori man, about fifty years old, with his wife, came to him for counsel. They had nine children, but their marriage was in peril. Sitting on a whalebone in a dirt floored hut, the young man reasoned with them. Their marriage was saved. Thousands of people—students, teachers, Sunday School leaders, rich and poor, and dark and light-skinned people — have learned the worth of this modest man's deep wisdom, his crisp sense of humor.
Returning from New Zealand, the missionary went back to school. Four years later he emerged from University of Utah with a B.S. degree and teacher's diplomas for both high school and elementary school.
The next year (1897) found him principal of the Southern Branch of Utah State Normal School, at Cedar City, Utah. Fifty years later, he could recall the number of pupils enrolled during each of the three years he directed the school: 119, 160 and 200. During his second year there, he and a teaching associate, Howard R. Driggs, organized a teacher training class in connection with the faculty of Cedar City Sunday School. They met after Sunday School in the two-story schoolhouse of "native" yellowish pink brick. Elders Bennion and Driggs, who were later to serve together on the General Board for 39 years, used the regular class period time for observation.
In the fall of 1900, Milton Bennion left Utah to study for his master's degree at Columbia University in New York City. But before he departed, he received a patriarchal blessing from one of the greatest educators and Sunday School leaders the Church has produced, Karl G. Maeser, then first assistant general superintendent of the Deseret Sunday School Union. It was the first such blessing Elder Maeser gave. He died a few months afterward. The influence of his words, however, never left Milton Bennion.
Returning from Columbia, Milton Bennion was named to the faculty of the University of Utah, where he remained for forty years. There he later served as dean of the School of Education for 28 years and vice-president of the University in 1940-41. On his return from the East, he was also chosen for the Granite Stake Sunday School board. Shortly thereafter, he was. called to serve as superintendent of the University Sunday School, meeting in Barratt Hall, for out-of-town students of the L.D.S. University and the University of Utah. His first assistant was J. Reuben Clark, Jr., who had succeeded him as principal of the Southern Branch at Cedar City. Elder Clark at that time was teaching at the L.D.S. Business College. The University Sunday School faculty also included two well-known scholars, Dr. James E. Talmage and Nephi L. Morris.
After three years as superintendent, Milton Bennion returned to Granite Stake Sunday School Board. Granite Stake Union Meetings were noted in those days for their quality and high attendance.
In 1909, at 39, Milton Bennion was elevated to the general board. He was assigned to supervise teaching of youth in the adolescent years.
After eight years as first assistant to the late General Superintendent George D. Pyper, Dr. Bennion, on March 2, 1943, became general superintendent of all Sunday Schools of the Church.
It was a difficult time to take over the helm of this vast organization. The world was at war, the worst in history. In Europe, Sunday Schools had been disrupted amid bursts of bombs. In America, there was travel and paper rationing, along with the other wartime restrictions. Union meetings and stake Sunday School conventions had been suspended. With some men and women joining the armed forces and others moving to war industry centers, there was a great turnover in Sunday School personnel (estimated at 75 per cent in 1944, compared with the normal 20 per cent).
Not long after he had become general superintendent, with George R. Hill, Jr. as first assistant and A. Hamer Reiser as second assistant, the superintendency issued this message to the General Board:
"Manuals and teachers' supplements should be usable and helpful to all grades of L. D. S. Sunday Schools — the fortunately situated and also the less privileged—those well equipped with rooms, books, illustrative materials, and qualified teachers, and also those that lack these requirements . . . We must be realistic, recognize the facts, and make provision to meet the needs of every situation."
That thought has since been the keynote of the general board's efforts. One of the first changes wrought was the creation of teachers' supplements—providing much more help for the teacher in the classroom at no additional expense. Theretofore, supplementary helps for lessons for all departments had been carried in The Instructor. This meant, for example, that the first intermediate teacher was obliged to purchase a magazine containing about thirty pages of material (for other departments) for which she had no use. All these lesson helps were transferred from the magazine to teachers' supplements, one for each department. This transfer allowed much more space in The Instructor for additional lesson enrichment material besides other Sunday School features. The total yearly price of The Instructor and a teachers' supplement, under this plan, was $1.20—the same price as The Instructor had been.
Superintendent Bennion, in charge of the contents of the Sunday School magazine, also introduced other innovations: reducing the magazine size to its present purse or pocket size; publishing of original source material, such as the serial biographies of George Q. Cannon, Anthony W. Ivins, George A. Smith, Orson Pratt, and Ezra T. Benson; and series such as "The Dramatic Approach to Teaching," and "Healthful Living—A Part of Religious Education." More recently he has introduced lesson references to articles appearing in Church periodicals. The circulation of The Instructor during the first year after the change, jumped nearly 3,000—to 16,500, believed to be an all-time high up to that time.
But The Instructor and supplement innovations were only the beginning of a wave of new printed helps for the Sunday School teacher. A new teacher-training text, The Master's Art, by Howard R. Driggs, was issued. Pictures, including four-color ones for the first time, were used more generously in pupil manuals. They were also made more appealing with covers carrying more color and artistry than ever before. With the Primary Association, the Sunday School General Board prepared a 506-page children's story book, A Story To Tell. A new teacher training supplement was introduced, and, for the first time, Sunday Schools of the Church were given a librarian's handbook.
During Milton Bennion's superintendency, the General Board brought out an imposing parade of new picture sets to further assist gospel teaching. There was a set of 96 colored pictures on Church History and a set of colored pictures on the Old Testament and another on the New Testament. These pictures were produced in cooperation with the Deseret Book Company. There were also new picture sets with character-building subjects for the Junior Sunday Schools. All pictures were large—about eight by ten inches in size.
More general board helps were extended to mission Sunday Schools. Circular materials, beginning in 1944, went to branch superintendents, as well as to those in the wards. Home Sunday Schools were pushed, new courses being offered to them each year.
Changes came in Sunday School music. Song practice became song service, and reverential movement to classes replaced militaristic marching. A book of songs, prepared by Alexander Schreiner and Anna Johnson, was issued for tiny tots.
During Milton Bennion's superintendency, the General Board's attitude toward Junior Sunday Schools was changed. No longer were they organized because of housing limitations. They were created because they provided more development for young Latter-day Saints. Hundreds of them have burst into being since 1943. Suggestions regarding housing of Junior Sunday Schools were transmitted by the General Board to the Presiding Bishopric. Now meetinghouse blueprints provide facilities specially designed for little folk.
In 1943, "100% Sunday," an annual enlistment rally day, was announced by the General Board. It did much to stimulate greater attendance. For example, on this day one ward (Arlington, in Los Angeles) drew an attendance of 633, with a ward population of only 690; and an Idaho Falls Sunday School increased its attendance 45 per cent.
In all these and other innovations, Superintendent Bennion has been assisted by a large, able general board, numbering 48 in 1949—and by a quiet, intelligent little woman, his wife, Cora Lindsay Bennion, a mother of ten.
In 1944, the Utah Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters presented Milton Bennion its annual award for "outstanding achievement in arts and letters." In the field of letters, his Sunday School administration had produced sheaves of new help for the humble brown-skinned teacher in Syria as well as for the Ph.D. leading a gospel doctrine class in New York. His own spoken and written words had been few, but they had been golden—like scripture. In the arts, he had excelled in the sovereign of them all—the art of living.
[1] Henry Newman, Ph.D., leader of Brooklyn Ethical Culture Society.
[2] Since The Instructor carried a brief biography on Superintendent Bennion in April, 1943, this article attempts to portray some facets of his life and character not included therein.
Reiser, A. Hamer. "Milton Bennion, Friend to Many." Instructor. November 1949. pg. 546-547.
Milton Bennion, Friend to Many
A. HAMER REISER
MILTON Bennion, who, at his own request, was released by the First Presidency in September, 1949, as general superintendent of the Deseret Sunday School Union, has won a high place of honor in the hearts and minds of thousands of people.
Thousands directly, and many more thousands indirectly, have enjoyed the benefits of his thought and action. Most of those who have received direct benefit from his life and work are well aware of the benefits and are grateful and deeply and respectfully appreciative. Those who have received the indirect benefits may not be aware of the good which has come into their lives; but they have nevertheless been enriched by this quiet, effective, and generous man.
The July Instructor gives a full account of his varied career, his long, active, useful life, in which so many people have come within the sphere of his good influence.
For more than half a century he has carried responsibilities which could be discharged only by his giving something he had to give. These years have been remarkable for the quantity and quality of his giving and for the skill and generosity with which he has given.
To be able to give so liberally, he has been obliged to work long and hard and diligently. He has, nevertheless, worked cheerfully and with the fervor, enthusiasm, and effectiveness of one who loves his work and who thrives upon sharing his wealth with others.
This wealth, so abundantly acquired by his long and conscientious labor, is wealth of the mind and of the spirit. It is the kind of wealth which increases in quantity and quality as it is shared. It is not consumed by use and enjoyment and cannot be depleted. It is enhanced by being applied to the benefit of others.
In his youth his missionary service in New Zealand gave him some of his earliest experiences in giving to his fellow men his knowledge and enthusiasm for the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. I can easily imagine that he did this with the same conscientious thoroughness which has characterized his work all the years of his life.
My first direct association with him came more than thirty years ago, when I was a student at the University of Utah. His career by that time was well-advanced. He was dean of the School of Education and professor of philosophy and education. For more than twenty years he Bad been engaged in teaching and educational administration.
My earliest recollections of him are associated with my respect for his thriftiness in the use of words, his wealth of ideas, and his great generosity and skill in giving his ideas to others. Anyone who will read what he has written and will continue to write will understand this at once. The thousands of people who have been students in his classes in religion; in the gospel; in educational history, theory, practice, and administration; or in logic, philosophy, ethics, and character education know from firsthand experience how greatly they have been enriched by association with him.
Seemingly with the greatest of ease, he can say so very much in so few words that he leaves his listeners and his readers with an awareness of having been enriched by a master. I re-experience that awareness every time I read his Citizenship —An Introduction to Social Ethics, his Moral Teachings of the New Testament, or his editorials in The Instructor.
This is a stimulating experience. His diction is simple, yet remarkable for its aptness and accuracy. The reader is at once impressed that he is receiving ideas, information, and inspiration from a well-stocked, well-arranged mind, filled with thoughts of highest quality.
One cannot read him without wanting to return for more. Read his Citizenship—An Introduction to Social Ethics or Moral Teachings of the New Testament and you will go back many, many times for more helpings. His are the kind of ideas that stay with you, because you discover that they have the enduring, universal quality of truth and sincerity and because they so convincingly square with experience.
There is a Lincolnian simplicity, sincerity, and soundness about this man, which holds people to him with a solemn sense of being quietly enriched with truth.
The thousands who know him well as the result of his long and active life will be delighted to know that they can continue to enjoy him through the editorial columns of The Instructor.
“An indispensable element in love of God is love of all that is good. For ethics as an empirical science this is the chief significance of the first great commandment. This love implies devotion to the good, and this, in turn, an enlightened attitude toward it. All of this is necessary to give proper direction to the second great commandment—love of neighbor. What could love of neighbor mean in case of people who are without moral ideals or who place no value upon the moral life? —Milton Bennion, MORAL TEACHINGS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT.
Milton Bennion, Friend to Many
A. HAMER REISER
MILTON Bennion, who, at his own request, was released by the First Presidency in September, 1949, as general superintendent of the Deseret Sunday School Union, has won a high place of honor in the hearts and minds of thousands of people.
Thousands directly, and many more thousands indirectly, have enjoyed the benefits of his thought and action. Most of those who have received direct benefit from his life and work are well aware of the benefits and are grateful and deeply and respectfully appreciative. Those who have received the indirect benefits may not be aware of the good which has come into their lives; but they have nevertheless been enriched by this quiet, effective, and generous man.
The July Instructor gives a full account of his varied career, his long, active, useful life, in which so many people have come within the sphere of his good influence.
For more than half a century he has carried responsibilities which could be discharged only by his giving something he had to give. These years have been remarkable for the quantity and quality of his giving and for the skill and generosity with which he has given.
To be able to give so liberally, he has been obliged to work long and hard and diligently. He has, nevertheless, worked cheerfully and with the fervor, enthusiasm, and effectiveness of one who loves his work and who thrives upon sharing his wealth with others.
This wealth, so abundantly acquired by his long and conscientious labor, is wealth of the mind and of the spirit. It is the kind of wealth which increases in quantity and quality as it is shared. It is not consumed by use and enjoyment and cannot be depleted. It is enhanced by being applied to the benefit of others.
In his youth his missionary service in New Zealand gave him some of his earliest experiences in giving to his fellow men his knowledge and enthusiasm for the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. I can easily imagine that he did this with the same conscientious thoroughness which has characterized his work all the years of his life.
My first direct association with him came more than thirty years ago, when I was a student at the University of Utah. His career by that time was well-advanced. He was dean of the School of Education and professor of philosophy and education. For more than twenty years he Bad been engaged in teaching and educational administration.
My earliest recollections of him are associated with my respect for his thriftiness in the use of words, his wealth of ideas, and his great generosity and skill in giving his ideas to others. Anyone who will read what he has written and will continue to write will understand this at once. The thousands of people who have been students in his classes in religion; in the gospel; in educational history, theory, practice, and administration; or in logic, philosophy, ethics, and character education know from firsthand experience how greatly they have been enriched by association with him.
Seemingly with the greatest of ease, he can say so very much in so few words that he leaves his listeners and his readers with an awareness of having been enriched by a master. I re-experience that awareness every time I read his Citizenship —An Introduction to Social Ethics, his Moral Teachings of the New Testament, or his editorials in The Instructor.
This is a stimulating experience. His diction is simple, yet remarkable for its aptness and accuracy. The reader is at once impressed that he is receiving ideas, information, and inspiration from a well-stocked, well-arranged mind, filled with thoughts of highest quality.
One cannot read him without wanting to return for more. Read his Citizenship—An Introduction to Social Ethics or Moral Teachings of the New Testament and you will go back many, many times for more helpings. His are the kind of ideas that stay with you, because you discover that they have the enduring, universal quality of truth and sincerity and because they so convincingly square with experience.
There is a Lincolnian simplicity, sincerity, and soundness about this man, which holds people to him with a solemn sense of being quietly enriched with truth.
The thousands who know him well as the result of his long and active life will be delighted to know that they can continue to enjoy him through the editorial columns of The Instructor.
“An indispensable element in love of God is love of all that is good. For ethics as an empirical science this is the chief significance of the first great commandment. This love implies devotion to the good, and this, in turn, an enlightened attitude toward it. All of this is necessary to give proper direction to the second great commandment—love of neighbor. What could love of neighbor mean in case of people who are without moral ideals or who place no value upon the moral life? —Milton Bennion, MORAL TEACHINGS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT.
"Retiring Superintendent of the Sunday School Milton Bennion." Improvement Era. December 1949. pg. 815-816.
Retiring Superintendent Milton Bennion
No release can come to a man who has given so much of himself and so much to the Church as has Milton Bennion, whose long service has been matched only by the great contributions he has made in that service. Years do not matter — except as they count the achievements that they make possible.
Elder Bennion's experience in the Sunday School has been varied and wide. He knows the problems of the rural Sunday School teacher as well as those of the urban leader; he knows the perplexities of the beginning class instructor as well as those of the experienced director.
He has respect for everyone who comes into the organization, just as he has respected everyone whom he has met or worked with in any of his numerous activities in the educational field or in his religious associations. And withal he has maintained his droll sense of humor, a dry wit that has saved many of what might otherwise have become serious situations.
Milton Bennion's children are a living testimony to his and his wife's integrity. Cora Lindsay Bennion, for about nineteen years a member of the Relief Society general board, has been stalwart in her support of Superintendent Bennion. Immediately following her release from the Relief Society general board, Sister Bennion was called to be an ordinance worker in the Salt Lake Temple, and for almost ten years she has served in that capacity.
Upon one occasion the question was asked one of Elder Bennion's children why they all seemed to be so well-balanced and responsible in Church and civic affairs. His answer was illuminating: "I don't remember my parents ever giving a definite command after any of us reached the age of fifteen." Elder and Sister Bennion evidently laid down the principles upon which they felt their family might build a sensible life; then they left their children to make their own decisions. Of course, Elder and Sister Bennion were eager to have the children consult with them, and stressed their desire to help whenever that help was desired, but they wanted their children to grow in maturity and responsibility.
No mere biographical facts can portray the integrity of Elder Bennion's philosophy; yet they are indicative of the forces that impel him to good. He was born June 7, 1870, in the little farming community of Taylorsville, Utah. Here he sat in the Sunday School, which at the time was not divided into departments, and tried to learn with adults, and largely in adult language, the principles of the gospel and pertinent quotations from the standard works of the Church.
Elder Bennion's father died when Milton was seven years of age. His mother, Mary Turpin Bennion, was a semi-invalid, and her six sons, of whom Milton was the youngest, and a daughter were left to maintain the home and educate themselves. The farm would afford subsistence for them, and so Milton worked on it and thus helped the family.
When he was eighteen, he was asked to teach the four beginners' grades in Taylorsville. This event proved to be the turning point of his life, for prior to that time he had considered the professions of lawyer or doctor. As a student at the University of Deseret, forerunner of the University of Utah, he had not interested himself in the teaching field. However, he undertook the work of teacher and found so deep a satisfaction that he remained from that time in the educational field.
When Elder Bennion was nineteen, he received a call for a mission to New Zealand where he served for more than three years. There he presided over a district and worked in the Sunday School; and he solved many personal and Church problems by his wisdom and unfailing humor, for even as a young man he merited the confidence of those who have come under his influence.
He continued his education after he returned from his mission, and in 1897 was graduated from the University of Utah with a B.S. degree and teacher's diplomas permitting him to teach both in high school and elementary schools.
From 1897 to 1900 Elder Bennion served as the principal of the Southern Branch State Normal School at Cedar City (later the Branch Agricultural College). The following year he obtained his master's degree from Columbia University. In 1901-1902 he was assistant professor of education at the University of Utah; assistant professor of philosophy, 1902-04; and full professor after 1904. At the University of Utah he was dean of education from 1913 to 1941, as well as vice president of the University in 1940-41. He had completed more than forty years of teaching when he retired from the University of Utah faculty.
Elder Bennion has held positions of great renown in the national and international picture. For five years he was chairman of the committee on character education in the National Education Association, and in 1923 he served as chairman of Group D of the International Ideals, World Conference, held in San Francisco, where he directed study concerning international ideals including world peace and character education.
From his educational achievements he has gained recognition throughout the United States, but through his religious activities he has rounded his life to one of service to the entire Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. His call to the general board of the Deseret Sunday School Union came in October 1909—and his release as general superintendent came in September 1949, forty years later. Prior to his appointment to the general board Elder Bennion had served twice on the Granite Stake Sunday School board and also as superintendent of the University Sunday School.
For eight years Milton Bennion was first assistant to general superintendent George D. Pyper. Upon the latter's death. Elder Bennion became general superintendent of the Deseret Sunday School Union, March 2, 1943, the position he has held until his release September 9. 1949, at his urgent request as a result of his ill health.
Superintendent Bennion at the time of his illness displayed his usual dry wit—as well as his sound philosophy and his tremendous courage. He stated: "I am glad that I can go feet first, for the dead limbs can be amputated, and I can still survive." His patience in the face of great suffering and his fortitude in facing altered conditions have been inspirational to all who have been privileged to meet him.
The Church as a whole and the Sunday Schools in particular will be happy to learn that Elder Bennion will continue on the editorial staff of The Instructor, which this year is featuring the centennial of the founding of the Sunday School.
The work under General Superintendent Bennion received new impetus, which will continue to advance the cause of the Sunday School throughout the Church.
Retiring Superintendent Milton Bennion
No release can come to a man who has given so much of himself and so much to the Church as has Milton Bennion, whose long service has been matched only by the great contributions he has made in that service. Years do not matter — except as they count the achievements that they make possible.
Elder Bennion's experience in the Sunday School has been varied and wide. He knows the problems of the rural Sunday School teacher as well as those of the urban leader; he knows the perplexities of the beginning class instructor as well as those of the experienced director.
He has respect for everyone who comes into the organization, just as he has respected everyone whom he has met or worked with in any of his numerous activities in the educational field or in his religious associations. And withal he has maintained his droll sense of humor, a dry wit that has saved many of what might otherwise have become serious situations.
Milton Bennion's children are a living testimony to his and his wife's integrity. Cora Lindsay Bennion, for about nineteen years a member of the Relief Society general board, has been stalwart in her support of Superintendent Bennion. Immediately following her release from the Relief Society general board, Sister Bennion was called to be an ordinance worker in the Salt Lake Temple, and for almost ten years she has served in that capacity.
Upon one occasion the question was asked one of Elder Bennion's children why they all seemed to be so well-balanced and responsible in Church and civic affairs. His answer was illuminating: "I don't remember my parents ever giving a definite command after any of us reached the age of fifteen." Elder and Sister Bennion evidently laid down the principles upon which they felt their family might build a sensible life; then they left their children to make their own decisions. Of course, Elder and Sister Bennion were eager to have the children consult with them, and stressed their desire to help whenever that help was desired, but they wanted their children to grow in maturity and responsibility.
No mere biographical facts can portray the integrity of Elder Bennion's philosophy; yet they are indicative of the forces that impel him to good. He was born June 7, 1870, in the little farming community of Taylorsville, Utah. Here he sat in the Sunday School, which at the time was not divided into departments, and tried to learn with adults, and largely in adult language, the principles of the gospel and pertinent quotations from the standard works of the Church.
Elder Bennion's father died when Milton was seven years of age. His mother, Mary Turpin Bennion, was a semi-invalid, and her six sons, of whom Milton was the youngest, and a daughter were left to maintain the home and educate themselves. The farm would afford subsistence for them, and so Milton worked on it and thus helped the family.
When he was eighteen, he was asked to teach the four beginners' grades in Taylorsville. This event proved to be the turning point of his life, for prior to that time he had considered the professions of lawyer or doctor. As a student at the University of Deseret, forerunner of the University of Utah, he had not interested himself in the teaching field. However, he undertook the work of teacher and found so deep a satisfaction that he remained from that time in the educational field.
When Elder Bennion was nineteen, he received a call for a mission to New Zealand where he served for more than three years. There he presided over a district and worked in the Sunday School; and he solved many personal and Church problems by his wisdom and unfailing humor, for even as a young man he merited the confidence of those who have come under his influence.
He continued his education after he returned from his mission, and in 1897 was graduated from the University of Utah with a B.S. degree and teacher's diplomas permitting him to teach both in high school and elementary schools.
From 1897 to 1900 Elder Bennion served as the principal of the Southern Branch State Normal School at Cedar City (later the Branch Agricultural College). The following year he obtained his master's degree from Columbia University. In 1901-1902 he was assistant professor of education at the University of Utah; assistant professor of philosophy, 1902-04; and full professor after 1904. At the University of Utah he was dean of education from 1913 to 1941, as well as vice president of the University in 1940-41. He had completed more than forty years of teaching when he retired from the University of Utah faculty.
Elder Bennion has held positions of great renown in the national and international picture. For five years he was chairman of the committee on character education in the National Education Association, and in 1923 he served as chairman of Group D of the International Ideals, World Conference, held in San Francisco, where he directed study concerning international ideals including world peace and character education.
From his educational achievements he has gained recognition throughout the United States, but through his religious activities he has rounded his life to one of service to the entire Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. His call to the general board of the Deseret Sunday School Union came in October 1909—and his release as general superintendent came in September 1949, forty years later. Prior to his appointment to the general board Elder Bennion had served twice on the Granite Stake Sunday School board and also as superintendent of the University Sunday School.
For eight years Milton Bennion was first assistant to general superintendent George D. Pyper. Upon the latter's death. Elder Bennion became general superintendent of the Deseret Sunday School Union, March 2, 1943, the position he has held until his release September 9. 1949, at his urgent request as a result of his ill health.
Superintendent Bennion at the time of his illness displayed his usual dry wit—as well as his sound philosophy and his tremendous courage. He stated: "I am glad that I can go feet first, for the dead limbs can be amputated, and I can still survive." His patience in the face of great suffering and his fortitude in facing altered conditions have been inspirational to all who have been privileged to meet him.
The Church as a whole and the Sunday Schools in particular will be happy to learn that Elder Bennion will continue on the editorial staff of The Instructor, which this year is featuring the centennial of the founding of the Sunday School.
The work under General Superintendent Bennion received new impetus, which will continue to advance the cause of the Sunday School throughout the Church.
"Inspiration from the Lives of Eight Men - Milton Bennion." Instructor. October 1970. pg. 380.
Inspiration from the Lives of Eight Men
Milton Bennion
The sixth general Sunday School superintendent, Milton Bennion, was appointed March 2, 1943. He had 33 years of Sunday School experience before becoming general superintendent. A trained professional educator, he headed the Sunday School administration through World War II. It was said of him by a prominent non-Church member, "An hour with that man is like an hour in church."
Brother Bennion was most practical. He instituted the supplements to manuals so that teachers might have all of the necessary material for the direction of classwork in their hands. He reduced The Instructor to a pocket-size edition. He was a man of few words. By nature and training he would go directly to the heart of the matter. It was said of him, "His own spoken and written words had been few, but they had been golden—like scripture."[1]
[1] "Milton Bennion," by Wendell J. Ashton, The Instructor, July, 1949, page 312.
Inspiration from the Lives of Eight Men
Milton Bennion
The sixth general Sunday School superintendent, Milton Bennion, was appointed March 2, 1943. He had 33 years of Sunday School experience before becoming general superintendent. A trained professional educator, he headed the Sunday School administration through World War II. It was said of him by a prominent non-Church member, "An hour with that man is like an hour in church."
Brother Bennion was most practical. He instituted the supplements to manuals so that teachers might have all of the necessary material for the direction of classwork in their hands. He reduced The Instructor to a pocket-size edition. He was a man of few words. By nature and training he would go directly to the heart of the matter. It was said of him, "His own spoken and written words had been few, but they had been golden—like scripture."[1]
[1] "Milton Bennion," by Wendell J. Ashton, The Instructor, July, 1949, page 312.