PROVO — From being teased for stuttering to being flooded with invitations to address youth groups all over the country, Wid Tolman's experiences with the spoken word have run the gamut.

And at 78, he's still busy talking, especially on youth trips into the Utah wilderness.

Tolman, a retired Brigham Young University professor, had inauspicious beginnings as a child.

"When I first started talking, I stuttered," Tolman said. "I made a donkey of myself."

Not only did he stutter, he had dyslexia.

Teased terribly by others his age, he hesitantly decided to serve a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints but ran away from the mission home the second day. The disappointed mission president sent him to Spencer W. Kimball, a general authority back then, to be released from his mission calling.

"He visited with my mom and dad," Tolman said. "And he asked me if I believed in God. I nodded."

Kimball then put his hands on Tolman's head and commanded his tongue be loosed.

"I said my first words, unimpaired in my whole life — 'Thank you,"' Tolman said.

After serving a successful mission to Texas and Louisiana, Tolman attended Brigham Young University. He taught seminary in Payson after graduation and then returned to BYU where he taught for 34 years.

He and his wife, Jane, purchased LaVell Edwards' previous home in the Edgemont area. There, he became a Scoutmaster and began working with youths.

Tolman said he wanted to turn boys camp for his church group upside down with a lot of spirituality and a bit of camping, rather than the other way around.

He wrote a program for a three-day wilderness youth conference that included fun and games. Tolman built a portable zip line and took it and a fireman's rescue net to conferences for activities.

Parallels to life were taught later, as participants sat in a circle.

"Let's relate this to life," Tolman would tell the youths, and "how your circle of friends, parents and leaders are there to help you when you fall."

Then, Tolman was asked why girls couldn't go on 50-milers into the Uintas. That started the first official "Powder Puff and Huff" for young women in his church group.

Since 1974 Tolman has taken groups of young women and parents backpacking into the Uintas. Kisi Watkins has been on "huffs" since 1987 and reflected on accompanying Tolman into the wilderness.

"You will see some of the most beautiful country you'll ever see," Watkins said. "He knows the Uintas better than anyone I know and sets it up as a spiritual adventure that kids learn from. It's much more character building than girls camp."

Gord Oborn is a friend and cohort who helps Tolman plan wilderness outings for church groups like one last April to the slot canyons of Spooky and Peek-a-boo in southern Utah. Nearly 100 members of his church group followed Tolman through the mazes of narrow red rock.

"There is no detail left unturned," Oborn said of Tolman's planning. "You will know when you turn left, when you turn right, the exact time to meet. He studies the maps and knows where he's going. There's no room for doubt."

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E-mail: knelson@desnews.com