Richard R. Lyman
Born: 23 November 1870
Called as Second Assistant Superintendent of the YMMIA: 1918
Called to the Quorum of the Twelve: 7 April 1918
Called as First Assistant Superintendent of the YMMIA: 1922
Released from Superintendency of the YMMIA: 1935
Excommunicated: 12 November 1943
Died: 31 December 1963
Called as Second Assistant Superintendent of the YMMIA: 1918
Called to the Quorum of the Twelve: 7 April 1918
Called as First Assistant Superintendent of the YMMIA: 1922
Released from Superintendency of the YMMIA: 1935
Excommunicated: 12 November 1943
Died: 31 December 1963
Conference TalksImage source: Young Women's Journal, May 1918
Image source: Relief Society Magazine, February 1919
Image source: Juvenile Instructor, February 1919
Image source: Improvement Era, September 1932
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Image source: Young Women's Journal, July 1920
Image source: Juvenile Instructor, May 1918
Image source: Improvement Era, May 1918
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Biographical Articles
Biographical Encyclopedia, Volume 3
Biographical Encyclopedia, Volume 4
Improvement Era, May 1918, Elder Richard R. Lyman
Juvenile Instructor, May 1918, Richard R. Lyman
Young Woman's Journal, May 1918, Richard Roswell Lyman
Improvement Era, September 1932, Greatness in Men - Richard R. Lyman
Biographical Encyclopedia, Volume 4
Improvement Era, May 1918, Elder Richard R. Lyman
Juvenile Instructor, May 1918, Richard R. Lyman
Young Woman's Journal, May 1918, Richard Roswell Lyman
Improvement Era, September 1932, Greatness in Men - Richard R. Lyman
Jenson, Andrew. "Lyman, Richard R." Biographical Encyclopedia. Volume 3. pg. 756-760.
LYMAN, Richard Roswell, a member of the Council of Twelve Apostles, was born Nov. 23, 1870, at Fillmore. Millard county, Utah, the son of Francis M. Lyman and Clara Caroline Callister. His father was president of the Council of the Twelve for thirteen years and a member of that Council thirty-six years. Amasa M. Lyman, the grandfather of Richard R. Lyman, was a member of the Council of the Twelve for twenty-eight years. On his mother's side, Richard R. Lyman belongs to the fifth generation of members of the Church His great grandfather, John Smith, the Prophet's uncle, was one of the presiding Patriarchs of the Church. The mother of this Patriarch also belonged to the Church. Richard R. Lyman's grandmother, on his mother's side, was Caroline Smith Callister, the only sister of the late George A. Smith, who was a counselor to President Brigham Young. Of Richard R. Lyman it is said that during his childhood he never smiled and that while as a little fellow he would jump with delight, he was a strapping boy before he was induced to laugh. In April. 1878. at the age of seven years, he moved with his father's family to Tooele. Tooele county. Utah, where his father had been called to preside over the Tooele Stake of Zion. In a school house at Fillmore, with his face turned toward the south. Richard R. began to study geography. During his twenty-five or thirty years' experience as a teacher, and in his association with school teachers, he endeavored to impress the importance of having students who are beginning the study of geography and the use of maps do so facing the north. When he went to the school taught by William Foster, in the little adobe school house in Tooele, slabs with the round side up were used for the recitation benches; and when home-made wooden benches with backs were brought into the school room for recitation benches, the school children looked upon them as a great luxury. Richard R. Lyman was baptized July 29, 1879, and soon afterwards ordained a Deacon. For many years after that, he did duty as a Deacon in the Tooele Ward. At the age of eight (in the summer of 1879), Richard R. was placed in charge of his father's fine driving team and Concord buggy. While he was not big enough to hitch the team to the buggy, the team being unusually full of life, he took pride, under his father's direction and encouragement, in keeping the horses, harness, buggy and barn in clean and first class condition. In 1881-1882 he drove team for both his father and President Heber J. Grant, who had succeeded his father as president of the Tooele Stake. It always afforded the boy great joy to meet President Grant at the Tooele station or at Lake Point with his fine team, and he will never forget with what relish he ate candy and raisins with President Grant, as they rode together from the station or went about Tooele county on Stake business. While President Grant was in Salt Lake City attending to his personal business Richard R. Lyman, then about eleven years old, used to stay at the home of Pres. Grant's wife, Lucy Stringham Grant, to render what protection he could to her and her two baby daughters, Rachel and Lucy. The family prayers of that good woman as she knelt with her two little girls and the boy (Richard R. Lyman) made a wonderful impression upon the boy's mind. With a mother so saint-like and prayerful he says it is no surprise that the two little girls have developed into such model mothers and influential leaders among the young women of the Church. In the fall of 1882, at the age of twelve, Richard R. was sent to Provo to attend school in the Brigham Young Academy. He was a student in that institution when the fire occurred which made it necessary to move the educational institution into another part of the city. Richard R. spent two summers working at the "Mill" located near E T City, on the shore of Great Salt Lake. Here he milked many cows, assisted in hauling logs for lumber, out of the mountains, etc. Here also he learned to swim and ride horses, when they were swimming. While thus riding and herding in Tooele county Richard R. nearly always carried with him the New Testament, which was given to him by his mother, with instructions to read it frequently. In accordance with this instruction he read and re-read the life and works of the Great Master. The policy of President Francis M. Lyman was to put his boys to work while they were young, being much more anxious about the kind of training the boys received than the amount of money they were paid. For two years Richard R. worked at the ranch of Hyrum E. Booth, near Grantsville, and he regards the training given him and hard work he was required to do by Hyrum E. Booth and his industrious wife and family as one of the most valuable trainings that came into his life. An expert gardener from England pruned the trees, planted and cared for the garden and did the irrigating on the two homes belonging to Francis M. Lyman in Tooele. When this work was turned over later to Richard R. as a boy, he followed the example set for him by the English gardener. The weeds were hoed with regularity, and the gravel walks about the home were carefully raked and crowned. He also cared for the trees, the vines, the flowers, the chickens and the cows. Following the example and teachings of his father, Richard R., during most of his boyhood, kept a daily journal, and perhaps the most striking feature contained in this record is the regularity with which the boy attended Priesthood meetings, Y. M. M. I. A. meetings, Sunday schools and other meetings. In August, 1888, with his sister Mary, he went to the Brigham Young Academy at Provo to study. At that time this educational institution was under the able leadership of Karl G. Maeser. Richard R. was ordained a Teacher by Bishop Thos. Atkin jun. Sept. 16, 1888. While attending school in Provo, Richard R. began a courtship with Miss Amy Brown, which covered continuously a period of eight years. To this girl, whom he married Sept. 9, 1856 (President Joseph F. Smith performing the ceremony), Richard R. always regards himself as greatly indebted for whatever degree of success has come to him in the business world, in the educational field or in Church work. After a summer of hard work at Grantsville, Richard R. and his sister Mary were sent by their father to the Brigham Young College at Logan, which institution then was under the direction of Dr. Joseph M. Tanner. During this school year (1889-1890), Richard R. began his labors as an assistant teacher in the college. While in Logan he took out special certificates in plane and solid geometry, algebra and physiology. The following year, in Provo. his studies covered trigonometry, analytic geometry, theory of teaching, psychology, logic, surveying, physics and rhetoric. During the summer of 1890, Richard R. was employed as a bookkeeper in the combined jewelry and furniture store of T. B. Cardon & Co. at Logan, and during the summer of 1891 he was bookkeeper for the Utah Manufacturing & Building Co. at Mill Creek, near Salt Lake City. Thus far during his school life Richard R. had been required to furnish his own clothing, his own books and his own spending money, while his father had paid his tuition and board. When Richard R. now asked his father for an opportunity to go East to college, the father offered to lend him the necessary means for a period of four years, an offer which the son promptly accepted. Repaying this money and the interest on it at the rate of 10 per cent, required a period of seven years, the principal amounting to nearly $2500. Richard R. was ordained an Elder, Aug. 29, 1891, by Joseph F. Smith and after receiving his endowments in the Logan Temple he went East to study. The policy of Pres. Francis M. Lyman had been to keep his sons either at work or in school practically every day. On his way East, Richard R. spent ten days with his mother at Manassa, Colorado, she and her family being at that time on the 'underground." The ten days spent in Manassa are remembered vividly by Richard R. because they were the last ten days he spent with his mother. He separated from the family Sept. 19, 1891, and his mother died Sept. 21, 1892. He remembers with great gratitude how his dear mother prepared underclothing, socks and other necessities to serve him during his four years of college life. While he attended the University at Ann Arbor, primarily for the purpose of studying mathematics with the thought of teaching in the Brigham Young University at Provo, and while he registered in the department of civil engineering, he devoted a great deal of time to the study of literature, history and public speaking. During his sophomore year he was elected president of his class and was elected to the same position a second time during his senior year. Richard R. spent all his vacations in hard work; one was devoted to the study of chemistry at the University at Michigan, while two were devoted to traveling through the State selling school supplies for a business firm at Chicago, and one was spent as assistant mine and railroad surveyor in the Tintic mining district, Utah. The school year 1895-1896 was spent in the Brigham Young University as principal of the High School and head of the department of mathematics and physics. Beginning in the fall or 1896 and continuing until the spring of 1918, Richard R. Lyman, in the University of Utah, passed through all the grades of instructor, assistant professor, associate professor and full professor in charge of the department of civil engineering. He held a full professorship and was head of the department for eighteen years and he still holds a professorship in the department of civil engineering. With his family Professor Lyman spent the summer of 1902 doing advanced work in the University of Chicago; thence he went to Cornell University where he was given a residence credit of three years. While there, with the class of 1903, he was graduated with the degree of M. C. E. (Master of Civil Engineering). In the spring of 1904 he was elected by the faculty of Cornell University to membership in the society of The Sigma Xi, a scientific organization into which only those who have achieved marked success and have unusual ability in the line of scientific investigation and research are supposed to be received. With the class of 1905 he was graduated with the degree of Ph. D. (Doctor of Philosophy). In one year he was awarded the only scholarship offered by the college of civil engineering and during another the only fellowship offered by that same department. Richard R. Lyman began writing for publication while he was a student at the University of Michigan. He wrote a series of articles on "The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor," for the "Juvenile Instructor," beginning in May, 1894. In addition to writing a good many articles of a non-technical character, he has written scientific articles for the "Engineering Record," the "Engineering News," and for the "Transactions of the American Society of Civil Engineers." For the University of Utah Experiment Station, he has prepared one bulletin entitled "The Construction and Maintenance of Earth Roads," and another on "The Measurement of Flowing Streams." For his article entitled "Measurement of the Flow of Streams by Approved Forms of Weirs with New Formulas and Diagrams," which was published in Vol. LXXVII, page 1189 (1914) of the "Transactions of the American Society of Civil Engineers," he was awarded the "J. James R. Croe's gold medal," for the year 1915. This prize is awarded only for a paper which is "judged worthy of the award of this prize for its merit as a contribution to engineering science." From 1909 to 1918 he served as vice chairman of the Utah State Road Commission. During this nine years of service the work of the State Road Commission, from a beginning with little funds, so advanced that at the expiration of this time the State Road Commission was expending in the neighborhood of three-fourths or a million dollars annually. The Utah State Road Commission was created in 1909 and Richard R. Lyman was one of its original members and its first vice-chairman, which position he held during the whole nine years. He has served as city engineer of Provo, was transitman on a railroad survey from Springville through Hobble Creek Canyon toward the Uintah reservation for Jesse Knight in 1898, and designed and superintended the construction of waterwork systems in nearly all the towns and smaller cities of Utah and many in Idaho and Wyoming. For years he conducted an office as a civil and consulting engineer. At various times he has served as chief engineer and consulting engineer for the following companies: Melville Irrigation Company, Delta, Utah; Deseret Irrigation Company, Oasis, Utah; Oasis Land & Irrigation Company, with headquarters in Salt Lake City, Utah; Delta Land & Water Company of Salt Lake City, Utah; Utah County Light & Power Company, American Fork, Utah, and Utah Copper Company of Salt Lake City. He was one of the original directors of the Intermountain Life Insurance Company and is at present serving as vice-president of this company. He is also president of the Giant Racer Company, vice-president of the Ensign Amusement Company, director of the Pleasant Green Water Company, president of the Lyman-Callister Company, and director of Heber J. Grant & Co. Bro. Lyman had experience in the Brigham Young University as a Priest, administering the Sacrament and doing other similar service. From the fall of 1895 to the summer of 1896 he acted as a counselor to Bryant S. Hinckley, superintendent of the Mutual Improvement Associations of the Utah Stake, when the Utah Stake embraced all of Utah county. In 1897 (Sept. 12th), he was ordained a High Priest by President Angus M. Cannon and set apart as superintendent of the Y. M. M. I. A. of Salt Lake Stake, which Stake then included the whole of Salt Lake county. He continued to serve in this capacity until the spring of 1902, when he, with his family, went to the University of Chicago, and later to Cornell University. For several years Bro. Lyman acted as supervisor of the parents' classes of the Ensign Stake. He was ordained an Apostle and set apart as a member of the Council of Twelve Apostles by President Joseph F. Smith April 7, 1918, in the Salt Lake Temple, assisted by Presidents Anthon H. Lund and Charles W. Penrose and the members of the Council of the Twelve. Richard R. Lyman and his wife. Amy B. Lyman, have had two children, namely, Wendell Brown Lyman, born Dec. 18, 1897, in Salt Lake City, and Margaret Lyman, born Sept. 15, 1903, at Ithaca, New York. Amy B. Lyman is the general secretary of the Relief Society of the Church. Wendell B. Lyman was ordained an Elder by his father June 11, 1920, and started on a mission to the Northwestern States June 18, 1920.
LYMAN, Richard Roswell, a member of the Council of Twelve Apostles, was born Nov. 23, 1870, at Fillmore. Millard county, Utah, the son of Francis M. Lyman and Clara Caroline Callister. His father was president of the Council of the Twelve for thirteen years and a member of that Council thirty-six years. Amasa M. Lyman, the grandfather of Richard R. Lyman, was a member of the Council of the Twelve for twenty-eight years. On his mother's side, Richard R. Lyman belongs to the fifth generation of members of the Church His great grandfather, John Smith, the Prophet's uncle, was one of the presiding Patriarchs of the Church. The mother of this Patriarch also belonged to the Church. Richard R. Lyman's grandmother, on his mother's side, was Caroline Smith Callister, the only sister of the late George A. Smith, who was a counselor to President Brigham Young. Of Richard R. Lyman it is said that during his childhood he never smiled and that while as a little fellow he would jump with delight, he was a strapping boy before he was induced to laugh. In April. 1878. at the age of seven years, he moved with his father's family to Tooele. Tooele county. Utah, where his father had been called to preside over the Tooele Stake of Zion. In a school house at Fillmore, with his face turned toward the south. Richard R. began to study geography. During his twenty-five or thirty years' experience as a teacher, and in his association with school teachers, he endeavored to impress the importance of having students who are beginning the study of geography and the use of maps do so facing the north. When he went to the school taught by William Foster, in the little adobe school house in Tooele, slabs with the round side up were used for the recitation benches; and when home-made wooden benches with backs were brought into the school room for recitation benches, the school children looked upon them as a great luxury. Richard R. Lyman was baptized July 29, 1879, and soon afterwards ordained a Deacon. For many years after that, he did duty as a Deacon in the Tooele Ward. At the age of eight (in the summer of 1879), Richard R. was placed in charge of his father's fine driving team and Concord buggy. While he was not big enough to hitch the team to the buggy, the team being unusually full of life, he took pride, under his father's direction and encouragement, in keeping the horses, harness, buggy and barn in clean and first class condition. In 1881-1882 he drove team for both his father and President Heber J. Grant, who had succeeded his father as president of the Tooele Stake. It always afforded the boy great joy to meet President Grant at the Tooele station or at Lake Point with his fine team, and he will never forget with what relish he ate candy and raisins with President Grant, as they rode together from the station or went about Tooele county on Stake business. While President Grant was in Salt Lake City attending to his personal business Richard R. Lyman, then about eleven years old, used to stay at the home of Pres. Grant's wife, Lucy Stringham Grant, to render what protection he could to her and her two baby daughters, Rachel and Lucy. The family prayers of that good woman as she knelt with her two little girls and the boy (Richard R. Lyman) made a wonderful impression upon the boy's mind. With a mother so saint-like and prayerful he says it is no surprise that the two little girls have developed into such model mothers and influential leaders among the young women of the Church. In the fall of 1882, at the age of twelve, Richard R. was sent to Provo to attend school in the Brigham Young Academy. He was a student in that institution when the fire occurred which made it necessary to move the educational institution into another part of the city. Richard R. spent two summers working at the "Mill" located near E T City, on the shore of Great Salt Lake. Here he milked many cows, assisted in hauling logs for lumber, out of the mountains, etc. Here also he learned to swim and ride horses, when they were swimming. While thus riding and herding in Tooele county Richard R. nearly always carried with him the New Testament, which was given to him by his mother, with instructions to read it frequently. In accordance with this instruction he read and re-read the life and works of the Great Master. The policy of President Francis M. Lyman was to put his boys to work while they were young, being much more anxious about the kind of training the boys received than the amount of money they were paid. For two years Richard R. worked at the ranch of Hyrum E. Booth, near Grantsville, and he regards the training given him and hard work he was required to do by Hyrum E. Booth and his industrious wife and family as one of the most valuable trainings that came into his life. An expert gardener from England pruned the trees, planted and cared for the garden and did the irrigating on the two homes belonging to Francis M. Lyman in Tooele. When this work was turned over later to Richard R. as a boy, he followed the example set for him by the English gardener. The weeds were hoed with regularity, and the gravel walks about the home were carefully raked and crowned. He also cared for the trees, the vines, the flowers, the chickens and the cows. Following the example and teachings of his father, Richard R., during most of his boyhood, kept a daily journal, and perhaps the most striking feature contained in this record is the regularity with which the boy attended Priesthood meetings, Y. M. M. I. A. meetings, Sunday schools and other meetings. In August, 1888, with his sister Mary, he went to the Brigham Young Academy at Provo to study. At that time this educational institution was under the able leadership of Karl G. Maeser. Richard R. was ordained a Teacher by Bishop Thos. Atkin jun. Sept. 16, 1888. While attending school in Provo, Richard R. began a courtship with Miss Amy Brown, which covered continuously a period of eight years. To this girl, whom he married Sept. 9, 1856 (President Joseph F. Smith performing the ceremony), Richard R. always regards himself as greatly indebted for whatever degree of success has come to him in the business world, in the educational field or in Church work. After a summer of hard work at Grantsville, Richard R. and his sister Mary were sent by their father to the Brigham Young College at Logan, which institution then was under the direction of Dr. Joseph M. Tanner. During this school year (1889-1890), Richard R. began his labors as an assistant teacher in the college. While in Logan he took out special certificates in plane and solid geometry, algebra and physiology. The following year, in Provo. his studies covered trigonometry, analytic geometry, theory of teaching, psychology, logic, surveying, physics and rhetoric. During the summer of 1890, Richard R. was employed as a bookkeeper in the combined jewelry and furniture store of T. B. Cardon & Co. at Logan, and during the summer of 1891 he was bookkeeper for the Utah Manufacturing & Building Co. at Mill Creek, near Salt Lake City. Thus far during his school life Richard R. had been required to furnish his own clothing, his own books and his own spending money, while his father had paid his tuition and board. When Richard R. now asked his father for an opportunity to go East to college, the father offered to lend him the necessary means for a period of four years, an offer which the son promptly accepted. Repaying this money and the interest on it at the rate of 10 per cent, required a period of seven years, the principal amounting to nearly $2500. Richard R. was ordained an Elder, Aug. 29, 1891, by Joseph F. Smith and after receiving his endowments in the Logan Temple he went East to study. The policy of Pres. Francis M. Lyman had been to keep his sons either at work or in school practically every day. On his way East, Richard R. spent ten days with his mother at Manassa, Colorado, she and her family being at that time on the 'underground." The ten days spent in Manassa are remembered vividly by Richard R. because they were the last ten days he spent with his mother. He separated from the family Sept. 19, 1891, and his mother died Sept. 21, 1892. He remembers with great gratitude how his dear mother prepared underclothing, socks and other necessities to serve him during his four years of college life. While he attended the University at Ann Arbor, primarily for the purpose of studying mathematics with the thought of teaching in the Brigham Young University at Provo, and while he registered in the department of civil engineering, he devoted a great deal of time to the study of literature, history and public speaking. During his sophomore year he was elected president of his class and was elected to the same position a second time during his senior year. Richard R. spent all his vacations in hard work; one was devoted to the study of chemistry at the University at Michigan, while two were devoted to traveling through the State selling school supplies for a business firm at Chicago, and one was spent as assistant mine and railroad surveyor in the Tintic mining district, Utah. The school year 1895-1896 was spent in the Brigham Young University as principal of the High School and head of the department of mathematics and physics. Beginning in the fall or 1896 and continuing until the spring of 1918, Richard R. Lyman, in the University of Utah, passed through all the grades of instructor, assistant professor, associate professor and full professor in charge of the department of civil engineering. He held a full professorship and was head of the department for eighteen years and he still holds a professorship in the department of civil engineering. With his family Professor Lyman spent the summer of 1902 doing advanced work in the University of Chicago; thence he went to Cornell University where he was given a residence credit of three years. While there, with the class of 1903, he was graduated with the degree of M. C. E. (Master of Civil Engineering). In the spring of 1904 he was elected by the faculty of Cornell University to membership in the society of The Sigma Xi, a scientific organization into which only those who have achieved marked success and have unusual ability in the line of scientific investigation and research are supposed to be received. With the class of 1905 he was graduated with the degree of Ph. D. (Doctor of Philosophy). In one year he was awarded the only scholarship offered by the college of civil engineering and during another the only fellowship offered by that same department. Richard R. Lyman began writing for publication while he was a student at the University of Michigan. He wrote a series of articles on "The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor," for the "Juvenile Instructor," beginning in May, 1894. In addition to writing a good many articles of a non-technical character, he has written scientific articles for the "Engineering Record," the "Engineering News," and for the "Transactions of the American Society of Civil Engineers." For the University of Utah Experiment Station, he has prepared one bulletin entitled "The Construction and Maintenance of Earth Roads," and another on "The Measurement of Flowing Streams." For his article entitled "Measurement of the Flow of Streams by Approved Forms of Weirs with New Formulas and Diagrams," which was published in Vol. LXXVII, page 1189 (1914) of the "Transactions of the American Society of Civil Engineers," he was awarded the "J. James R. Croe's gold medal," for the year 1915. This prize is awarded only for a paper which is "judged worthy of the award of this prize for its merit as a contribution to engineering science." From 1909 to 1918 he served as vice chairman of the Utah State Road Commission. During this nine years of service the work of the State Road Commission, from a beginning with little funds, so advanced that at the expiration of this time the State Road Commission was expending in the neighborhood of three-fourths or a million dollars annually. The Utah State Road Commission was created in 1909 and Richard R. Lyman was one of its original members and its first vice-chairman, which position he held during the whole nine years. He has served as city engineer of Provo, was transitman on a railroad survey from Springville through Hobble Creek Canyon toward the Uintah reservation for Jesse Knight in 1898, and designed and superintended the construction of waterwork systems in nearly all the towns and smaller cities of Utah and many in Idaho and Wyoming. For years he conducted an office as a civil and consulting engineer. At various times he has served as chief engineer and consulting engineer for the following companies: Melville Irrigation Company, Delta, Utah; Deseret Irrigation Company, Oasis, Utah; Oasis Land & Irrigation Company, with headquarters in Salt Lake City, Utah; Delta Land & Water Company of Salt Lake City, Utah; Utah County Light & Power Company, American Fork, Utah, and Utah Copper Company of Salt Lake City. He was one of the original directors of the Intermountain Life Insurance Company and is at present serving as vice-president of this company. He is also president of the Giant Racer Company, vice-president of the Ensign Amusement Company, director of the Pleasant Green Water Company, president of the Lyman-Callister Company, and director of Heber J. Grant & Co. Bro. Lyman had experience in the Brigham Young University as a Priest, administering the Sacrament and doing other similar service. From the fall of 1895 to the summer of 1896 he acted as a counselor to Bryant S. Hinckley, superintendent of the Mutual Improvement Associations of the Utah Stake, when the Utah Stake embraced all of Utah county. In 1897 (Sept. 12th), he was ordained a High Priest by President Angus M. Cannon and set apart as superintendent of the Y. M. M. I. A. of Salt Lake Stake, which Stake then included the whole of Salt Lake county. He continued to serve in this capacity until the spring of 1902, when he, with his family, went to the University of Chicago, and later to Cornell University. For several years Bro. Lyman acted as supervisor of the parents' classes of the Ensign Stake. He was ordained an Apostle and set apart as a member of the Council of Twelve Apostles by President Joseph F. Smith April 7, 1918, in the Salt Lake Temple, assisted by Presidents Anthon H. Lund and Charles W. Penrose and the members of the Council of the Twelve. Richard R. Lyman and his wife. Amy B. Lyman, have had two children, namely, Wendell Brown Lyman, born Dec. 18, 1897, in Salt Lake City, and Margaret Lyman, born Sept. 15, 1903, at Ithaca, New York. Amy B. Lyman is the general secretary of the Relief Society of the Church. Wendell B. Lyman was ordained an Elder by his father June 11, 1920, and started on a mission to the Northwestern States June 18, 1920.
Jenson, Andrew. "Lyman, Richard R." Biographical Encyclopedia. Volume 4. pg. 242.
LYMAN, Richard R., first general assistant superintendent of the Y. M. M. I. A. from 1919 to 1934. (See Bio. Ency., Vol. 3, p. 756.)
LYMAN, Richard R., first general assistant superintendent of the Y. M. M. I. A. from 1919 to 1934. (See Bio. Ency., Vol. 3, p. 756.)
"Elder Richard R. Lyman." Improvement Era. May 1918. pg. 627-629.
Elder Richard R. Lyman To fill the vacancy, caused by the death of the late Elder Hyrum M. Smith, in the Council of Twelve Apostles, Elder Richard R. Lyman was chosen and unanimously sustained as a member of that quorum. His name was presented to the great congregation of Latter-day Saints on Saturday morning, April 6, 1918, and he was ordained to that high office and calling by President Joseph F. Smith, on Sunday, April 7, 1918. He is the son of the late President Francis M. Lyman and Clara Callister. On Sept. 9, 1896, he was married to Amy Brown, daughter of John Brown, the well-known Utah pioneer. They have two children. Elder Lyman removed with his parents from Fillmore to Tooele, Utah, in 1878, in which place he attended the common schools and later was educated in the Brigham Young College and the Brigham Young University, graduating from both institutions. In 1891 he entered the University of Michigan, at Ann Arbor, from which he graduated, June 27, in the class of 1895, with a degree of B. S. C. E. During his sophomore and senior years he was president of his classes. Returning to Utah, he taught in the Brigham Young University, at Provo, for one year. In the fall of 1906, he was made Professor of Civil Engineering at the University of Utah, which position he still holds. Prior to his appointment to the University of Utah, Dr. Lyman did three years post graduate work at the University of Chicago, and Cornell University. In the latter institution he had conferred upon him unusual honors. At Cornell, he had the scholarship and the fellowship in the College of Civil Engineering. He was also elected by the faculty to membership in the Society of the Sigma XI, an honorary scientific fraternity. On June 18, 1903, he graduated with the degree of Master of Civil Engineering, and on June 22, 1905, with a degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Aside from his services as professor of Civil Engineering, Dr. Lyman has done considerable scientific work, having prepared a bulletin on "Earth Road Construction and Maintenance," which has been used as a guide by many of the road commissioners throughout the intermountain West. His bulletin on the "Measurement of Flowing Streams," and his scientific paper, "Flow of Water Over Weirs, with New Formulas and Diagrams," for which latter he was awarded the James J. Croes gold medal by the American Society of Civil Engineers, in May, 1916, one of the strongest and best known scientific societies in the world, are in great demand throughout the West by people who are measuring and distributing water. He has been largely instrumental in inducing officials and others in many of the towns and smaller cities of Utah to provide pure water, by the construction of water work systems, a work of inestimable value to the health of the communities. Dr. Lyman served as a member and vice chairman of the Utah State Road Commission for nine years, during which time nearly all of the important road work done by the state has been accomplished. He served in this capacity from the organization of the State' Road Commission until May 1, 1917. In Church matters he has been actively interested, particularly among the young people. In the Utah stake Mutual Improvement Associations, before the division of the Utah county into stakes, he served as counselor to Bryant S. Hinckley. Later, or four years, he was superintendent of the Young Men's Mutual Improvement Associations of the old Salt Lake stake when it covered the whole of Salt Lake county. He resigned from this position in May, 1902, when he left for the East to do post-graduate work. During recent years, Dr. Lyman has been especially interested in the work of the Parents' Classes of the Sunday School, having acted as supervisor of this work in the Ensign stake. His selection as one of the Twelve will add both spiritual and intellectual strength to that important body of leaders in the Church, for he is a man of a strong spiritual nature which, reinforced by his splendid educational abilities, and his power as a teacher, will be felt for great good among the people in his new position. He is a man of unimpeachable integrity, a strict observer of the Word of Wisdom, a clear thinker, a teacher and a man of affairs of decided power and ability. |
ELDER RICHARD R. LYMAN
Born Fillmore, Utah, November 23, 1870; Ordained an Apostle of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, April 7, 1918 |
Reynolds, Alice Louise. "Richard R. Lyman." Juvenile Instructor. May 1918. pg. 234-237.
Richard R. Lyman By Alice Louise Reynolds A few days ago, A. C. Lund, director of the Tabernacle Choir, addressing the students of the Brigham Young University, told this story : "I was a member of a geometry class that, having completed the course, thought to celebrate by taking an outing. At noon we spread our luncheon of bread and cheese, and one member of the group suggested a sort of Dutch luncheon, by adding beer. Another objected. 'Boys,' said he, 'we have just finished a course in geometry. You know how slight may be the divergence of a crooked line from a straight line, in the beginning, and yet how very wide of the mark it may be at the end." The young man who objected to the beer in this naive way was Richard R. Lyman." He has been the good divine who has followed his own teaching. Never have I seen him indulge in intoxicants of any kind or in tea or coffee. My acquaintance with Richard R. Lyman began many years ago, when he, his wife and I, were students in the Brigham Young Academy, in those days when the sainted spirit of Dr. Maeser pervaded all things. Later it was my good fortune to be a student with him in the universities of Michigan and Chicago. A year we were on the faculty of the Brigham Young University together. I have always gone in and out of the Lyman home as though it were my own home. So much of detail, that the reader may know that my acquaintance with Richard R. Lyman has been of no ordinary character. In the fall of 1896, Dr. Lyman married Amy Brown. That fall he was appointed professor of Civil Engineering at the University of Utah, a position which he still retains. I shall not use the space allowed me for biographical material, rather I shall seek to place before you prominent characteristics of Richard R. Lyman, as I have observed them. To be sure, in an article of magazine length, only the bold lines can be traced. Prominent among other characteristics that distinguish Dr. Lyman is his industry. He would not have certification of graduation from the University of Michigan, a doctorate from Cornell University, nor would he be the possessor of the J. James R. Croes medal, of Civil Engineering, for a paper whose requirements are that it shall be a distinctive and original scientific contribution, had he not been industrious. In support of my statement I call to mind the summer I spent in Ithica. At the Lyman home Richard R. Lyman was then working on his doctor's thesis. Near eight o'clock each morning one might see him climbing the hill towards the Cornell campus, but eight in the evening seldom saw him at home ; it was more often nine o'clock. In those hot summer months when people all over the country were seeking summer resorts, he was hard at work in the famous hydraulic laboratory of Cornell University. Richard R. Lyman's large, frank, tolerant nature has made for him a host of friends at home and abroad, among the students and faculties of the various universities with which he has been connected, in his somewhat lengthy career as student and professor. His studious, consistent course at the University of Michigan won for him general admiration. It certainly is no small honor that in a college of 4,000 students he should have been chosen to preside over his class in both the Sophomore and Senior years. Particularly is this interesting when it is known that the fraternity students tried to defeat him by refer ring to him as a "Mormon." Said they: "Make him president, and then send for his wives to he his vice presidents." It is a profound compliment to Richard R. Lyman, as well as to the students of the University of Michigan that they answered such attacks by electing him with an overwhelming majority. While a good many Latter-day Saint students have attended the University of Michigan, as well as many other Utah students connected with the dominant Church, Richard R. Lyman has the sole distinction of having presided over a class. That this friendship was not short-lived was abundantly proved by the many attentions Professor Lyman received from members of his class, when a few years ago he represented the State of Utah as vice-chairman of the State Road Commission, at an international convention held in Detroit. A good many of the boys of '95 are now established in Detroit. Nothing was left undone to show to Professor Lyman how deeply they appreciated an opportunity to renew their acquaintance. The same thing was true in Ann Arbor. Dean Cooley met him ?.i the station, as well as other members of the faculty of the University of Michigan, who were also members of the class of '93. Nor is this all, for when two years ago Mrs. Lyman and party crossed the continent, she was recipient of the same attention from members of the faculties of both Michigan and Cornell universities. In those Ann Arbor days it seemed the natural thing to me that Richard R. Lyman should lead an absolutely temperate life; that he should withstand a multitude of temptations on the right hand on the left hand : that he should always be found on Sunday in the little gatherings of the Latter-day Saints ; but since I have grown older, and have a keener realization of what all these things mean, I have grown to know how absolutely his will and desires were supported by the blessings of our Heavenly Father, that he should have come forth unspotted and unscathed. Dr. Lyman's friends and associates have always felt a good deal of pride in his achievements, in public life; yet I sincerely believe that there is no place where the real goodness of his nature shows forth to such excellent advantage as in his home. To be a guest in his home, to pray with him, to eat with him, to listen to his table conversation, that rarely ever sinks to the mediocre, is to be most fortunate. Were I writing a sketch of Amy Brown Lyman, his wife, I should say without hesitancy that her achievements had been helped and stimulated by the most sympathetic of husbands. On the other hand, it is only just to say that Richard R. Lyman has had from his wife the most heartfelt and intelligent support, in every undertaking of his life, that any man could possibly ask or desire. Together since the day of their marriage, their home has been the home of motherless and fatherless students seeking for an education. I feel sure that in Israel today there is a large group of young men and young women who would rise up and call them blessed for the kindly help and encouragement they have received while seeking for an education. Were I to try in two words to indicate the spirit of the Lyman home, I believe I should choose the words progress and affection. Those words are characteristic of the father and of the mother, and of their two children Wendel and Margaret. With Dr. Lyman it is never a question of whether a thing would do or not do, it is always is it the best? He would think of that were he watering his lawn or eating his dinner. He has inherited his unusual physical qualities from his father. Always in good health, good spirits, his good humor pervades and lifts and heartens all with whom he comes in contact. Like all good men, Professor Lyman is devoted to his mother's memory, as also to the memory of his honored father. I was near him in the hour of his bereavement, which came just at that age when a man begins to know what a precious gift a mother is. I have often listened to his tributes to his mother's unselfishness of character, and to his father's devotion and loyalty to Church work. I recall how often I have been visiting at the Lyman home when Father Lyman would call for Richard. It was his practice to see his father every day, for his father had said, "My son, I expect to see you every day," and in this expectation it is safe to say he was never disappointed, provided they were both in town. It is frequently said that no quality is so rare, and none so badly needed by the world as the quality of leadership. The men who lead in college are apt to be the men who will lead out of college. Students are quick to detect a leader. That Richard R. Lyman was chosen by the students of the Brigham Young Academy, as class president, the year of graduation; that he was twice elected to that office by the students of the University of Michigan; that he is now chosen a member of the Council of the Twelve is abundant evidence that this quality has been recognized. In Dr. Lyman's leisure hours he talks of religion, music, and literature. He has always been deeply interested in Church work, always eager in his administrations in the Mutual Improvement and Sunday School work to make it effective and efficient. He is a natural teacher, and a natural preacher, and with the blessings of our Heavenly Father, added to his native ability, he is almost certain in time to become a distinguished pulpit orator, full of feeling, full of persuasion for God and his righteousness. It is part of the strength of the quorum of the Twelve that the men who form that very responsible Council possess varied gifts, and have varied experiences. The new member of the quorum brings to his high calling experience which, while paralleling that of the other members, in many ways, is also distinct and different in many particulars. Any young man might be proud to bring to a calling the purity of life and the technical training that Richard R. Lyman possesses, which, magnified and intensified, and added to many fold by the blessings of our Heavenly Father, will make of him that which I feel he desires above all else to become, a mighty factor for good, first to the children of Israel, and thence to all of God's children, wherever they may be. |
RICHARD R. LYMAN
Sustained as a Member of the Council of the Twelve, April 6th, 1918. |
Merrill, Joseph F. "Richard Roswell Lyman." Young Woman's Journal. May 1918. pg. 238-242.
Richard Roswell Lyman.
By Dr. Joseph F. Merrill, of the University of Utah.
What has Richard Roswell Lyman ever done that he should be chosen a member of the Council of Twelve? is a question some have asked since he was sustained in this position by the General Conference, April 6. An excellent answer was given by Elder George Albert Smith when he asked, “What has Elder Lyman ever refused to do?”
Non-members of the Church, particularly those trained in the customs of sectarian denominations, are unable to understand how a man without a long, special training in a theological seminary can be called from civil life and placed in so high a position in the ministry. These same devout people, had they lived in Jerusalem in the days of Jesus, would undoubtedly have been unable to understand why He did not call the Twelve from among the rabbis, the professors of law and the scriptures, rather than from among fishermen and other lowly vocations in civil life. To a Latter- day Saint there is no mystery about the matter. The foundation stone of the Church is Revelation, the same today as it was in the New Testament times. And God’s ways are not man’s ways. And the Lord makes no mistakes. No man who does not enjoy the spirit of revelation, no matter what his ability and training, can make an acceptable minister of Jesus Christ, and any man who has this spirit may become such. The history of the Church abounds with illustrations of this truism.
Now. while all things are possible with the Lord, yet He does not do all possible things. He does not make a worthy apostle out of an unworthy man; He does not call an unworthy man to be an apostle.
Richard R. Lyman is widely known in Utah. His activities in educational and professional fields have carried him all over the State and into adjoining states. And wherever he is known, he is liked.
Born November 23. 1870, in Fillmore. Utah, the son of Francis M. and Clara C. C. Lyman. Richard lived eight years in his native town and then moved with his parents to Tooele City. Here he attended the public school during the winter time and worked during the summers at such jobs as may be found in a farming community. Approaching manhood, he attended the Brigham Young College in Logan one year and the Brigham Young Academy—now, Brigham Young University—at Provo for two years.
Tn the fall of 1891 he entered upon a civil engineering course at the University of Michigan. Ann Arbor. From this institution he received the degree of Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering four years later. While living in Ann Arbor with his sister in the late summer of 1892, he received word of the death of his beloved mother. He took the first train for home to attend the funeral.
Finishing his course in Ann Arbor in June, 1895, he came to Utah and entered upon his career of teaching, first during the year 1895- 1896 in the B. Y. University and next in 1896 to the present time, in the University of Utah. In the latter institution he has always taught civil engineering.
Securing a leave of absence in June, 1902, he spent the summer at the University of Chicago and in September entered Cornell University where for the work of three summers and two full years he completed the three years of residence required for the doctor’s degree, receiving the degree of Master of Civil Engineering in 1903, and the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in 1905. At Cornell he specialized in hydraulics. For his excellent work while at Cornell he was awarded the coveted honors of a scholarship in 1902-1903 and a fellowship in 1903-1904, the highest honor in his department open to a student. Here, in recognition of high scholarship, he was also honored by the Faculty with election to membership in the Sigma Xi Society. an honorary scientific society.
While at Cornell University, a typhoid fever epidemic of great severity broke out in Ithaca, the seat of the University. The cause of this epidemic was traced to the water supply of the city. Returning to Utah with a clear vision of the importance of providing pure water for drinking purposes in order to maintain the health of the people, Dr. Lyman at once entered upon the beneficent work of inducing city officials and others in many of the cities and towns in Utah and adjacent states to construct water works systems. In this work he has been a pioneer in Utah. And so successful has he been in this field that lie has earned the undying gratitude of thousands who now daily drink pure water, water now free from the death-dealing bacteria with which it was formerly frequently infected.
The energy, persistency, and enthusiasm exhibited by him in his campaign for pure culinary water were characteristic of him, and were the admiration of laymen, and the envy of a few would-be imitators in the engineering profession. Dr. Lyman has rendered many services but his pure water campaign stands out as his greatest service. Hundreds, if not thousands, literally owe their lives to him.
As professor in charge of the hydraulic laboratory at the University, he has carried on some important researches and published some valuable papers. His bulletin entitled, “Measurement of Flowing Streams.” points out the importance of careful weir measurements and gives simple, but new methods of making these determinations. This bulletin has been in wide demand among irrigators and others. His most elaborate scientific paper entitled, “Flow of Water over Weirs with New Formulas and Diagrams,” more than a hundred pages in length, was given the unusual distinction of being published in full in the Transactions of the American Society of Civil Engineers. For this paper, Dr. Lyman was given the distinguished honor of the J. James R. Croes gold medal.
This medal is given annually by the American Society of Civil Engineers, one of the high-grade and strongest scientific organizations in the world, for the first or second most meritorious contribution to engineering science, published during the year in the Transactions.
Dr. Lyman is a many-sided man. His activities have extended into many fields. On the passage by the Legislature in 1909 of the Roberts’ Good Roads law. Dr. Lyman was named by the Board of Regents of the University as a member of the State Road Commission. Here he served as a member and as vice-chairman until the repeal of the law by the Legislature of 1917. He was one of the most effective good roads advocates in the State. During his official career the movement for good roads was organized, popularized, and firmly established.
As a teacher Dr. Lyman has few equals. He has always been popular with his students. He will carry with him into his new field the best wishes of them all for his success. But they will regret that coming classes will not enjoy in the class-room the inspiration of his presence.
The educational and professional fields are not the only ones in which Richard R. Lyman has been active. Raised in a typical Mormon family he grew up with a love in his heart for his religion—with a love of God and of man. And this love he has always expressed in a genuine way, in service. He has always been active in the Church.
On going to Provo as a teacher in the B. Y. University in 1905 he soon was made a member of the Utah Stake Presidency of the Y. M. M. I. A. Moving a year later to Salt Lake City to become a member of the Faculty of the University of Utah, he was chosen in September. 1898, as superintendent of the Salt Lake Stake Y. M. M. I. A., a position he filled with great credit until he was released in 1902 to go East for graduate study. Returning home he was soon called into the Ensign Stake Sunday School organization as supervisor of Parents Classes. Here he labored until recently with unusual success. Owing to the pressure of other duties he was Released not long ago from the duties of this position.
Fortunate and successful as Dr. Lyman has been in the various spheres of activity he has entered, in none has he been as happy as in his home. It is certain that he owes his success in life in no small measure to his charming and capable wife, Amy Brown Lyman, whom he married September 9, 1896. The Lymans have two children. Wendall B., a young man of twenty, and Margaret, fourteen. Mrs. Lyman is very active in Relief Society work, and for some years has been the efficient Secretary of the General Board.
Dr. Lyman has a strong and delightful personality. Large of stature, commanding in his presence, he is a leader in every group where he enters. His fine appearance, never failing good humor, alert intellect, genial disposition, and ever ready wit make him a social favorite in every company. And he is a social favorite in the best and highest sense. There is nothing of the butter-fly about him. “Small talk” has no interest for him. He is ever ready to chat but only about things worth talking of.
He is no recluse. He loves the companionship of his friends. And everyone he meets wants to be his friend. So he is never alone unless the business of the hour requires him to be alone in order that he may work. But his best work is the influence for good he exerts on others.
These social qualities have always distinguished Professor Lyman. When he went to Ann Arbor they soon won for him a place in the heart of everyone he met. And so, while he came from the far-away West, from the country of the despised Mormons and he himself was generally known to be a Mormon, his class of several hundred students elected him president at the beginning of his second year there. This was the highest honor within the gift of the class. But this was not enough. Two years later, this same class, entering upon its senior year, did him the unusual honor to elect him president again. And to be president of the senior class and preside at the class-day graduating exercises was counted the greatest honor that could come to a student. And to be elected twice to be president of the class—this was previously unheard of.
Dr. Lyman is a man of the highest moral standards. Though a good story teller, I think no one ever heard him tell an unclean story. I doubt if he ever thought an unclean thought. He is truthful. He has perhaps, consciously, never told an untruth. Camouflage—deception—has no place in his conduct. His word is as good as his bond. He never takes an unfair advantage of anyone.
As a friend he is dependable to the highest degree. To his friends, he is as true in adversity as in prosperity. He has never yet denied the services of friendship to anyone whom he calls a friend. Anything that he can do at any time for a friend he is more than pleased to do.
Perhaps culture consists in an attitude of mind more than in anything else. The cultured mind is tolerant, sympathetic, unprejudiced, open-minded, ready to listen, willing to investigate, to receive truth from any source. Dr. Lyman is a cultured man. He thinks right, feels right, and acts right.
He is tolerant and sympathetic and has respect for the opinions and views of others though they differ from his own. Though on all live questions he entertains decided views of his own he never attempts to force these on others. He will argue, expound, persuade—always in a tactful, respectful manner—but will never bully or force.
A man of ability and of achievements, he is nevertheless devoid of selfishness, of conceit, of arrogance, of pomposity. Ever willing to serve, yet he is not servile. He respects himself and everyone else worthy of respect. He is a plain, wholesome, whole-souled man.
He is ever ready to enlist in any righteous cause. And such a cause always finds in him a staunch defender. Whatever he undertakes he enters upon with his whole soul. His efforts are always characterized by energy, persistence, and enthusiasm. He has always been true and loyal to his friends, his family, his Church. A sincere, honest, clean, faithful man, cultured and able, without guile and humble, where could' the Lord find an instrument more fit than is Richard R. Lyman to be a special witness of the Christ, a special ambassador of the Lord Jesus to the nations of the earth?
Let no Latter-day Saint believe that a mistake has been made in calling Richard Roswell Lyman to be a member of the Council of Twelve.
Richard Roswell Lyman.
By Dr. Joseph F. Merrill, of the University of Utah.
What has Richard Roswell Lyman ever done that he should be chosen a member of the Council of Twelve? is a question some have asked since he was sustained in this position by the General Conference, April 6. An excellent answer was given by Elder George Albert Smith when he asked, “What has Elder Lyman ever refused to do?”
Non-members of the Church, particularly those trained in the customs of sectarian denominations, are unable to understand how a man without a long, special training in a theological seminary can be called from civil life and placed in so high a position in the ministry. These same devout people, had they lived in Jerusalem in the days of Jesus, would undoubtedly have been unable to understand why He did not call the Twelve from among the rabbis, the professors of law and the scriptures, rather than from among fishermen and other lowly vocations in civil life. To a Latter- day Saint there is no mystery about the matter. The foundation stone of the Church is Revelation, the same today as it was in the New Testament times. And God’s ways are not man’s ways. And the Lord makes no mistakes. No man who does not enjoy the spirit of revelation, no matter what his ability and training, can make an acceptable minister of Jesus Christ, and any man who has this spirit may become such. The history of the Church abounds with illustrations of this truism.
Now. while all things are possible with the Lord, yet He does not do all possible things. He does not make a worthy apostle out of an unworthy man; He does not call an unworthy man to be an apostle.
Richard R. Lyman is widely known in Utah. His activities in educational and professional fields have carried him all over the State and into adjoining states. And wherever he is known, he is liked.
Born November 23. 1870, in Fillmore. Utah, the son of Francis M. and Clara C. C. Lyman. Richard lived eight years in his native town and then moved with his parents to Tooele City. Here he attended the public school during the winter time and worked during the summers at such jobs as may be found in a farming community. Approaching manhood, he attended the Brigham Young College in Logan one year and the Brigham Young Academy—now, Brigham Young University—at Provo for two years.
Tn the fall of 1891 he entered upon a civil engineering course at the University of Michigan. Ann Arbor. From this institution he received the degree of Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering four years later. While living in Ann Arbor with his sister in the late summer of 1892, he received word of the death of his beloved mother. He took the first train for home to attend the funeral.
Finishing his course in Ann Arbor in June, 1895, he came to Utah and entered upon his career of teaching, first during the year 1895- 1896 in the B. Y. University and next in 1896 to the present time, in the University of Utah. In the latter institution he has always taught civil engineering.
Securing a leave of absence in June, 1902, he spent the summer at the University of Chicago and in September entered Cornell University where for the work of three summers and two full years he completed the three years of residence required for the doctor’s degree, receiving the degree of Master of Civil Engineering in 1903, and the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in 1905. At Cornell he specialized in hydraulics. For his excellent work while at Cornell he was awarded the coveted honors of a scholarship in 1902-1903 and a fellowship in 1903-1904, the highest honor in his department open to a student. Here, in recognition of high scholarship, he was also honored by the Faculty with election to membership in the Sigma Xi Society. an honorary scientific society.
While at Cornell University, a typhoid fever epidemic of great severity broke out in Ithaca, the seat of the University. The cause of this epidemic was traced to the water supply of the city. Returning to Utah with a clear vision of the importance of providing pure water for drinking purposes in order to maintain the health of the people, Dr. Lyman at once entered upon the beneficent work of inducing city officials and others in many of the cities and towns in Utah and adjacent states to construct water works systems. In this work he has been a pioneer in Utah. And so successful has he been in this field that lie has earned the undying gratitude of thousands who now daily drink pure water, water now free from the death-dealing bacteria with which it was formerly frequently infected.
The energy, persistency, and enthusiasm exhibited by him in his campaign for pure culinary water were characteristic of him, and were the admiration of laymen, and the envy of a few would-be imitators in the engineering profession. Dr. Lyman has rendered many services but his pure water campaign stands out as his greatest service. Hundreds, if not thousands, literally owe their lives to him.
As professor in charge of the hydraulic laboratory at the University, he has carried on some important researches and published some valuable papers. His bulletin entitled, “Measurement of Flowing Streams.” points out the importance of careful weir measurements and gives simple, but new methods of making these determinations. This bulletin has been in wide demand among irrigators and others. His most elaborate scientific paper entitled, “Flow of Water over Weirs with New Formulas and Diagrams,” more than a hundred pages in length, was given the unusual distinction of being published in full in the Transactions of the American Society of Civil Engineers. For this paper, Dr. Lyman was given the distinguished honor of the J. James R. Croes gold medal.
This medal is given annually by the American Society of Civil Engineers, one of the high-grade and strongest scientific organizations in the world, for the first or second most meritorious contribution to engineering science, published during the year in the Transactions.
Dr. Lyman is a many-sided man. His activities have extended into many fields. On the passage by the Legislature in 1909 of the Roberts’ Good Roads law. Dr. Lyman was named by the Board of Regents of the University as a member of the State Road Commission. Here he served as a member and as vice-chairman until the repeal of the law by the Legislature of 1917. He was one of the most effective good roads advocates in the State. During his official career the movement for good roads was organized, popularized, and firmly established.
As a teacher Dr. Lyman has few equals. He has always been popular with his students. He will carry with him into his new field the best wishes of them all for his success. But they will regret that coming classes will not enjoy in the class-room the inspiration of his presence.
The educational and professional fields are not the only ones in which Richard R. Lyman has been active. Raised in a typical Mormon family he grew up with a love in his heart for his religion—with a love of God and of man. And this love he has always expressed in a genuine way, in service. He has always been active in the Church.
On going to Provo as a teacher in the B. Y. University in 1905 he soon was made a member of the Utah Stake Presidency of the Y. M. M. I. A. Moving a year later to Salt Lake City to become a member of the Faculty of the University of Utah, he was chosen in September. 1898, as superintendent of the Salt Lake Stake Y. M. M. I. A., a position he filled with great credit until he was released in 1902 to go East for graduate study. Returning home he was soon called into the Ensign Stake Sunday School organization as supervisor of Parents Classes. Here he labored until recently with unusual success. Owing to the pressure of other duties he was Released not long ago from the duties of this position.
Fortunate and successful as Dr. Lyman has been in the various spheres of activity he has entered, in none has he been as happy as in his home. It is certain that he owes his success in life in no small measure to his charming and capable wife, Amy Brown Lyman, whom he married September 9, 1896. The Lymans have two children. Wendall B., a young man of twenty, and Margaret, fourteen. Mrs. Lyman is very active in Relief Society work, and for some years has been the efficient Secretary of the General Board.
Dr. Lyman has a strong and delightful personality. Large of stature, commanding in his presence, he is a leader in every group where he enters. His fine appearance, never failing good humor, alert intellect, genial disposition, and ever ready wit make him a social favorite in every company. And he is a social favorite in the best and highest sense. There is nothing of the butter-fly about him. “Small talk” has no interest for him. He is ever ready to chat but only about things worth talking of.
He is no recluse. He loves the companionship of his friends. And everyone he meets wants to be his friend. So he is never alone unless the business of the hour requires him to be alone in order that he may work. But his best work is the influence for good he exerts on others.
These social qualities have always distinguished Professor Lyman. When he went to Ann Arbor they soon won for him a place in the heart of everyone he met. And so, while he came from the far-away West, from the country of the despised Mormons and he himself was generally known to be a Mormon, his class of several hundred students elected him president at the beginning of his second year there. This was the highest honor within the gift of the class. But this was not enough. Two years later, this same class, entering upon its senior year, did him the unusual honor to elect him president again. And to be president of the senior class and preside at the class-day graduating exercises was counted the greatest honor that could come to a student. And to be elected twice to be president of the class—this was previously unheard of.
Dr. Lyman is a man of the highest moral standards. Though a good story teller, I think no one ever heard him tell an unclean story. I doubt if he ever thought an unclean thought. He is truthful. He has perhaps, consciously, never told an untruth. Camouflage—deception—has no place in his conduct. His word is as good as his bond. He never takes an unfair advantage of anyone.
As a friend he is dependable to the highest degree. To his friends, he is as true in adversity as in prosperity. He has never yet denied the services of friendship to anyone whom he calls a friend. Anything that he can do at any time for a friend he is more than pleased to do.
Perhaps culture consists in an attitude of mind more than in anything else. The cultured mind is tolerant, sympathetic, unprejudiced, open-minded, ready to listen, willing to investigate, to receive truth from any source. Dr. Lyman is a cultured man. He thinks right, feels right, and acts right.
He is tolerant and sympathetic and has respect for the opinions and views of others though they differ from his own. Though on all live questions he entertains decided views of his own he never attempts to force these on others. He will argue, expound, persuade—always in a tactful, respectful manner—but will never bully or force.
A man of ability and of achievements, he is nevertheless devoid of selfishness, of conceit, of arrogance, of pomposity. Ever willing to serve, yet he is not servile. He respects himself and everyone else worthy of respect. He is a plain, wholesome, whole-souled man.
He is ever ready to enlist in any righteous cause. And such a cause always finds in him a staunch defender. Whatever he undertakes he enters upon with his whole soul. His efforts are always characterized by energy, persistence, and enthusiasm. He has always been true and loyal to his friends, his family, his Church. A sincere, honest, clean, faithful man, cultured and able, without guile and humble, where could' the Lord find an instrument more fit than is Richard R. Lyman to be a special witness of the Christ, a special ambassador of the Lord Jesus to the nations of the earth?
Let no Latter-day Saint believe that a mistake has been made in calling Richard Roswell Lyman to be a member of the Council of Twelve.
Hinckley, Bryant S. "Greatness in Men - Richard R. Lyman." Improvement Era. September 1932. pg. 648-652, 677.
Greatness in Men Richard R. Lyman By BRYANT S. HINCKLEY (Photographs by courtesy of Wilcox Studio.) Backed by a splendid ancestry and an intellectual wife, Dr. Lyman has scaled the heights in his profession and at the same time has rendered unusual service to his Church. SIXTY-TWO years ago November next in a neat, story and a half log house in fillmore, the first capital of the State of Utah, was born a man who has played a noble part in the affairs of this people. This city of less than twelve hundred inhabitants has given to the world its full share of genius and greatness, and on the roll of its nobility will shine the name of Richard Roswell Lyman. This city was the home of his no less illustrious father and grandfather. It is interesting to meditate on the fact that there are in the United States today twelve boys who in the common course of events will some day become presidents of this great republic, and no living soul can name one of them. The hand of providence has these prospective presidents in training and, in the strange mutation of events, it will lead them to their great responsibility. It would be interesting to contemplate the source from which these leaders have come and events that seem to shape their destiny. We are forced to the conclusion that, in a large sense, the destiny of men and nations rests in the hands of a beneficent creator. There may be a destiny "rough hewn though it be" that shapes our ends; but nowhere in the program of man's development is there anything that would belittle human endeavor or in any way discount the significance of individual struggle. Hard work brings boys to the front. Richard R. Lyman was handicapped with impaired vision. It is said that as a boy he seldom or never smiled and just how the exuberance of his great soul manifested itself in his childhood we do not know; but it finds expression in his mature years in a most congenial, wholehearted and radiant attitude toward life and toward mankind. Francis M. Lyman, his father, and Amasa M. Lyman, his grandfather, were men of large caliber, distinct individualism and of pronounced leadership. They were men of learning and of native refinement although they did a great deal of pioneering. This excerpt from an address by Dr. Lyman explains some of the things they did: "A detachment of the Utah Pioneers who had settled in Salt Lake Valley were called by President Brigham Young for the service and left their homes here in March, 1851. They were three months reaching Sycamore grove, where they camped for three months while Elder Amasa Lyman and Elder Charles C. Rich were completing negotiations for the purchase of R a n c h o San Bernardino. The area covering 35,000 acres was finally purchased for $77,500.” As soon as the negotiations were completed the pioneers moved on to the ranch and founded the city of San Bernardino. The survey was completed under direction of H. G. Sherwood and the city was laid out with 72 rectangular blocks. Homes were constructed and the emigrants found their first real shelter from the weather, since leaving Salt Lake. The 500 had been living in the open for eight months. Land that was purchased for slightly more than $2.00 per acre in 1851 is today valued as high as $2,500,000 per block in the heart of the city. It is interesting to note that the (new $600,000 Courthouse stands on the spot where the old home of Amasa M, Lyman was built in the stockade of the early days. On the 25th day of June this year Richard R. Lyman, grandson of Amasa M. Lyman, and Miss Gladys Rich, daughter of Amasa Rich Lyman and granddaughter of Charles C. Rich, were guests at the unveiling of a monument in honor of Amasa M. Lyman and Charles C. Rich, by the San Bernardino Branch of the California Daughters of the Golden West. Francis M. Lyman is known in the history of San Bernardino as a freighter of early days. He made eight round trips with mule team between Salt Lake and that city before 1857. A picture representing three generations of the Lyman family, Amasa M., Francis M. and Richard R., is given a place of honor in the Pioneer lodge in San Bernardino. This is to commemorate the service of this family as pioneers and pathfinders. The records indicate that Dr. Lyman's grandfather, Amasa M. Lyman, was ordained an Apostle in 1842 and died in 1877. His father, Francis M. Lyman, was ordained an apostle in 1880 and died in 1916. He was a member of that quorum for 36 years and for part of this time was president of the quorum. Few if any men have served this Church with greater diligence and more enlightened devotion than he did. Two years after Francis M. Lyman's death, Dr. Richard R. Lyman was made a member of that council and has already served in that capacity for fourteen years. Three generations of this family have been members of that quorum. His forebears on his mother's side were likewise leaders and pioneers of heroic mold, so that Richard R. Lyman comes from strong lines on both sides. His ancestors were prominent among the early pioneers and patriots of America. From his childhood Dr. Lyman has been methodical and painstaking in everything he did. If it were taking care of a barn he kept it in order with every tool in its place, if it were caring for a garden it was hoed with regularity and well hoed, and these characteristics have been manifest in all that he has done. Richard R. Lyman is preeminently a college man. He has spent the greater part of his days in constant contact with men of learning and of intellectual superiority. He is trained and traditioned in college methods and college ideals. In all his work in education there have been no short cuts, no skimming, it has been well and thoroughly done. He is one of the best and most carefully trained men in this community. His measure of values is largely determined by college standards. HE attended school in Fillmore and when eight years of age moved with his parents to Tooele where he attended William Foster's school which was held in a little adobe house where slabs were used for benches. In his twelfth year he entered the Brigham Young Academy at Provo; he subsequently attended the Brigham Young College in Logan, but returned to the Academy and was graduated from that institution with the class of '91. In the Fall of this year he entered the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, from which he was graduated with the class of 1895, with the degree of Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering. During his sophomore year he was President of his class and likewise during his senior year. It is a distinct honor to be president of one's class and it is an unusual and almost unheard of honor to be twice president. On returning to Utah in 1895 he taught in the Brigham Young University for one year and in the Fall of 1896 he was made professor of Civil Engineering in the University of Utah, and he continued in charge of that Department until 1918. Under leave of absence he did three years graduate work at the University of Chicago and Cornell University. In the latter University he had conferred upon him unusual honors, receiving a scholarship and a fellowship in the college of Civil Engineering. He was also elected by the faculty to membership in the honorary scientific fraternity Sigma XI. From Cornell he was graduated with the degree of Master of Civil Engineering on June 18, 1903, and on June 22, 1905 had conferred upon him the degree, Doctor of Philosophy. His seven years of patient and painstaking university work is a good example of that characteristic spoken of in the New Testament as "patient continuance," without which nothing really worth while can be accomplished, for this world is built on patient lines. He borrowed $2,500.00 to take him through the University of Michigan, all of which was paid back with interest at 10%. Thus while he was going to school he was forced to learn the lessons of thrift and economy, which he has never failed to practice and which have brought to him financial independence. While studying in the University he contributed articles to newspapers and magazines. A number of articles on the University of Michigan appeared in the Juvenile Instructor. In addition to writing a good many articles of a nontechnical character, he has written scientific articles for the "Engineering News," and for the "Transactions of the American Society of Civil Engineers." For the University of Utah Experiment Station, he has prepared a bulletin entitled, 'The Construction and Maintenance of Earth Roads," and another on the "Measurement of Flowing Streams." For his article entitled "Measurement of the Flow of Streams by Approved Forms of Weirs with New Formulas and Diagrams," which was published in the "Transactions of the American Society of Civil Engineers," he was awarded the J. James R. Croe's gold medal, for the year 1915, which was awarded by the American Society of Civil Engineers. This prize is awarded only for a paper which is "Judged worthy of the award of this prize for its merit as a contribution to engineering science." The publication of this paper and the award of this prize brought Dr. Lyman into national prominence in the field of Hydraulic Engineering. As a result of this work and his prominence he was asked if he would accept the chair of Civil Engineering in the Pennsylvania State College. His addresses and other publications on patriotic, moral and religious topics constitute by far the greatest part of his literary contributions. A SIDE from teaching he has served the state in many important positions. From 1909 to 1918 he was vice-chairman of the Utah State Road Commission. Under his direction the first modern concrete road in Utah was constructed, and he has effectively advocated and promoted the construction of these roads. Since its organization in 1922 Dr. Lyman has been a member and vice-chairman of the Utah Water Storage committee and has been very instrumental in securing a close and cooperative agreement between the State of Utah and the United States Reclamation Bureau. It has been said repeatedly that Utah has a more harmonious and satisfactory cooperative working agreement with the U. S. Reclamation Bureau than any other state in the Union, and no small part of this is due to the efforts of Dr. Lyman. Outside of his own state his ability has been recognized and he has served with some of the most distinguished engineers of America. For example: He was a member of the Engineering Board of Review for the Sanitary District of Chicago. This district included the city of Chicago and some fifty other municipalities. This board was composed of twenty-eight engineers, all men of national recognition and demonstrated ability. This is said to be the largest board of engineers ever organized for any purpose. Dr. Lyman was appointed one of a Board of five engineers for investigating the great Columbia Basin Reclamation Project, "the largest reclamation project," Dr. Elwood Mead has said, "with which the United States will ever deal." But perhaps the greatest recognition as an engineer which has yet come to Dr. Lyman is his selection as one of a board of three consulting engineers for the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. This board assisted in selecting one of forty-six proposed routes for the aqueduct which is to carry water from the Colorado River to Southern California. In 1931 this board was increased to five members and as one of these five consultants Dr. Lyman has been appointed to serve during the construction of the aqueduct, i It is estimated that it will require seven years to complete this project and a bond issue of two hundred and twenty million dollars has been authorized to pay the cost of its construction. His selection for a place on this board is indeed a great and distinct honor and the highest confirmation of his training and ability. In addition to his engineering work which has extended in many directions i he has been very active in business enterprises. He has been president of the Lyman- Callister Company, the Burtner Real Estate and Investment Company, The Ensign Amusement Company and the Giant Racer Company. He was one of the original directors and vice-president of the Intermountain Life Insurance Company during the whole of its history, and is now serving as a director of the California Western States Life Insurance Company. He is a director of the Pleasant Green Water Company, the Heber J. Grant Company and South Western Fire Insurance Company. DR. RICHARD R. LYMAN has achieved success as an educator, an engineer, a business man and a Church man ; but there is no place where he is seen to better advantage than in his home. Though he has achieved splendidly in many fields his noblest achievement was winning and wedding the delightful little woman who has walked by his side for thirty-six years and who has been the pride and inspiration of his life. On September 9, 1896, he married Amy Brown of Pleasant Grove, This was a day of major significance to him. In a consideration of the factors of his success the part that she has played must be given an important place and nothing would please him more than to give her this recognition, so we include a tribute to Mrs. Lyman by her life long friend, classmate and companion, Alice Reynolds, who is a gifted writer and an educator of recognized ability. From their girlhood there has existed be ween these brilliant women a constant and beautiful friendship built upon an intellectual affinity and kinship which has resulted in an understanding and an appreciation that could come from no other source. Miss Reynolds says: "Amy Brown Lyman, wife of Dr. Richard R. Lyman, was unusual as a girl and is unusual as a woman. The beauty of her hair and the exceptional loveliness of her brown eyes, typified the unusualness of her intellectual and spiritual qualities. Her charm as a girl made her attractive in all circles. She was the most popular young person I have ever known. Back of all her joyousness in life and its unfolding was the character developed in her pioneer home. Industry has always been of the air she breathes. Whatever she did she sought to do well, she succeeded. "Her inheritance is rich. From her forebears on her mother's side comes a thirst for knowledge and disposition to be exact. From her father comes much of her emotional power and winsomeness. "The blending of these strains has produced a woman of unusual balance. To me there is nothing about her more truly admirable than her balance. As a girl her beauty and animation played over her keen mind to the delight of all who knew her; in maturity her strength of mind is tempered by her kind heart and winsome smile, eliciting from those who know her, words of high praise coupled with profound admiration. In her, intellect, emotion, and spirituality are so finely blended that she is a challenge to womanhood everywhere. "The gifted teacher of pre marriage days stands high in her profession as a social worker in both the state and nation. She gave evidence of nothing short of remarkable talent in the long period in which she served the Woman's National Relief Society, as its secretary, and this talent is apparent in all of her work, whether given to the organizations of her church, or the National Council of Women. A woman of fine judgment, both Republican and Democratic Governors have been pleased to place her frequently on important committees. "Her writings are full of substance and are concise. Her addresses never fail to hold the interest of her audiences. A few years ago she delivered the Founder's Day address at the Brigham Young University, and the most able men of the faculty remarked that with slight retouching it could be submitted for a master's thesis. "She is a modern woman, a statement which implies that she believes in developing all of her powers and placing them where they can best serve her modern world. She stands at the side of her husband in all his endeavors. Side by side their names are written in "Who's Who." Side by side they serve; he on important engineering commissions and she on important welfare committees. "I have stated that industry is part and parcel of her nature; yet the thing most offensive to her, I believe, would be to be unprogressive. Much of her industry is effort to keep abreast of the times where she has deep-seated and particular interests. No matter where or when she functions she gives the impression of being rare and unusual." Brother and Sister Lyman have two children—Wendell Brown Lyman, born in Salt Lake City, December 18, 1897, and Margaret Lyman Schreiner, born in Ithica, New York, September 15, 1903. Wendell married Rachel Bailiff of Salt Lake City; Margaret married Alexander Schreiner, the famous young organist. FOR more than twenty years Dr. Lyman taught in the State University. Teaching has been a profession and a hobby with him. He is enthusiastic and positive in his manner of, presentation and is, in all respects, a popular and successful teacher and is never happier than when helping one to do things in a new and better way. Any great moral issue will receive his active and enthusiastic support. He is a man of hobbies. Prohibition, law enforcement, non-use of tobacco, the numbering of houses in cities so that a traveler can find any address without a map or Other assistance, are his present hobbies. A man's hobbies indicate his taste and reveal his character. He is a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, Ameri c a n Waterworks Association, American Association of Engineers, American Association for the Advancement of Science, Society for the Promotion of Engineering Education, Utah Society of Engineers and Utah Academy of Science. In his Apostolic ministry he does much public speaking and in an educational capacity he frequently delivers addresses. From his childhood he has been active in the Church and whether at home or abroad he has always maintained the high standards of his people and has never deserted or forsaken the ideals cherished by the Latter-day Saints. He has always stood as a leader among his associates and consequently has occupied positions of leadership and responsibility in the Church. He was stake superintendent of the Y. M. M. I. A. of Salt Lake Stake when it included all of the wards in Salt Lake County ; stake supervisor of Parent Classes for the Ensign Stake. He always points with pride to the fact that among his assistants in Salt Lake Stake were such men as George Albert Smith, Joseph F. Merrill, Heber C. Iverson and others. DR. LYMAN served as second assistant to President Anthony W. Ivins who was general superintendent of the Y. M. M. I. A. of the Church and Dr. Lyman is now first assistant to George Albert Smith, the present general superintendent. He has been very active in promoting the Boy Scout work and has been prominent in its national councils. He was ordained an apostle and set apart as a member of that council by the late President Joseph F. Smith on April 17, 1918, and since that time has traveled extensively throughout the Church giving to the work the best of his heart and mind. Dr. Richard R. Lyman is slightly under six feet four inches in height, weighs two hundred and fifty pounds and is well proportioned. He dresses with meticulous care and is most scrupulous in his living. These, added to his fine moral background, his superior intellectual capacity and training, the cultivation of his spiritual endowments, combine to make him an outstanding and impressive personality. Cultured, congenial, able and sincere, with a never failing good humor, he is delightfully companionable and a center from which radiates a most wholesome influence. He is big-hearted, high-minded, whole-souled, sympathetic and wholesome—wholesome in his thinking, in his habits of living, in all his contacts and associations —in fact there is no other word more descriptive of his character and personality. There are a hundred people who starve for words of encouragement and hope where there is one who actually hungers for bread. There are bleak and desolate lives that could be made bright and productive by a ray of sunlight or a gleam of hope. If we were to say to the living what we say over the dead this would be a far better world in which to live. Richard R. Lyman says the encouraging word today if he can't say it he writes it. A man may be brilliant, resourceful, enterprising, with capacities and capabilities of the most unusual order; he may be brave and kind and strong, but if he is not loyal you cannot trust him — Richard R. Lyman never betrayed friend or foe—you trust him. Wherever he has gone he has carried high the banner of his faith, never flauntingly, but with a dignity which has won the confidence and esteem of those with whom he has mingled. No one ever had occasion to question where his faith centered or to what church he gave his allegiance. At home or abroad wherever he has gone, in whatever company he has moved, Richard R. Lyman has observed, with almost Puritanic exactness, the principles and practices of his religion. He is a shining example of these fundamental virtues and we love him because of this. Neither jealousy nor envy have a place in his heart. |
Richard R. Lyman
Amy Brown Lyman
His Grandfather Amasa M. Lyman
Richard R. Lyman At 4 years of age
His Father Francis M. Lyman
His Mother Clara Callister Lyman
Sitting, left to right: W. P. Whitsett, Chairman Board of Directors Metropolitan Water District of Southern California,
Thaddeus Merriman, Chief Engineer Water Works System, City of New York. Standing, left to right: Frank E. Weymouth, Chief Engineer Metropolitan Water District, Dr. Richard R. Lyman, one of three Consulting Engineers for the District, A. J. Wiley, Consulting Engineer for the District. As president, class of 1895, University of Michigan. (This was the first year caps and gowns were worn at that university.)
Sitting, left to right: Margaret Lyman Schreiner, daughter, Richard R. Lyman, Amy Brown Lyman, Amy Kathryn Lyman, granddaughter.
Standing, left to right: Alexander Schreiner, Richard Lyman Schreiner, grandson, Wendell Brown Lyman, son. Miss Gladys Rich, daughter of Amasa Lyman Rich, former president Bear Lake Stake and granddaughter of Charles C. Rich, Richard R. Lyman, grandson of Amasa M. Lyman. Bronze tablet and monument dedicated June 25, 1932 in honor of Amasa M. Lyman and Charles C. Rich, who with a hundred Mormon families laid out the city and county
of San Bernardino in 1851. The monument is located on the Court House Square in San Bernardino the same area occupied by the stockade which was constructed for protecting these early Mormon settlers from the Indians. Richard Jr. Lyman and Gladys Rich were guests of honor at the unveiling and the address of the occasion was delivered by Richard R. Lyman. The monument was erected by the Chapter of the Daughters of the Golden West of California which has its headquarters in San Bernardino. |