Pres. Hinckley speaks today at Y.

PROVO — The first time LDS President Gordon B. Hinckley spoke at a Brigham Young University devotional, the assignment slipped his mind until the last minute.

"I had forgotten about this appointment, I must confess," he said at the start of that devotional in November 1959. "I took a class in speech once. The professor said, 'Whatever you do, don't stand up and apologize.' But I had completely forgotten about this until I turned over my calendar last night and looked to see what was ahead today and saw: BYU, 10 a.m."

In the 47 years since, President Hinckley has been a frequent and beloved speaker on campus, especially since 1995, when he became president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which owns BYU.

A capacity crowd of about 20,000 is likely today at the Marriott Center at 11 a.m. when President Hinckley presents the devotional. The speech will be broadcast live on KBYU-TV Channel 11, KBYU-FM, BYU-Television, BYU-Radio and www.byubroadcasting.org.

President Hinckley has made major announcements and set the stage for future policies in past addresses at the university. He surprised the campus in March 2003 when he introduced Elder Cecil O. Samuelson of the Seventy as BYU's 12th president at a regularly scheduled devotional.

No surprises of that magnitude are expected today.

"This was planned as part of the devotional schedule," BYU spokeswoman Carri Jenkins said.

In 1992, President Hinckley, while a member of the church's First Presidency, called BYU faculty "the bone and sinew of the university."

"We are concerned that your academic credentials be the very best," he continued, "and that there be a quality of excellence in all you do. We are also concerned with your faith, your principles. I hope you will not regard us as being unduly cautious or unnecessarily critical. We act in the spirit spoken of by Alma concerning teachers in his day. Said he: 'Trust no one to be your teacher ... except he be a man of God, walking in his ways and keeping his commandments."'

Prospective BYU faculty and staff members now must be interviewed by a representative, generally a church general authority, assigned by the Board of Trustees before they are hired.

In 1995, in his first BYU devotional after becoming church president, President Hinckley urged students to apply themselves.

"Finally," he said, "the church expects you to work while you are here. It is making a tremendous investment in you, an investment that comes from the sacred tithing funds of the church. Work is the miracle by which talent is brought to the surface and dreams become reality."

In 2003, speaking at a devotional that served as Samuelson's inauguration, President Hinckley called for strengthened scholarship but announced firmly that he believed BYU has succeeded in blending religion and scholarship.

"Here we are doing what is not done in any other major university of which I am aware," he said. "We are demonstrating that faith in the Almighty can accompany and enrich scholarship in the secular. It is more than an experiment. It is an accomplishment."

BYU began raising money a year ago to build the $35 million Gordon B. Hinckley Alumni and Visitors Center, due to be opened by fall 2007.

Nearly 63,000 people have donated money to pay for the building.

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E-mail: twalch@desnews.com