BYU-Idaho to augment its Harvard connection

Kim Clark still gets peppered with questions from former Harvard colleagues who can't quite grasp why he would give up the prestigious ranks of the Ivy League for the halls of Brigham Young University-Idaho.

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But Clark has an explanation that has worked with both academic peers and members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

"Imagine yourself getting a phone call from Moses. That's exactly what happened. When President Gordon B. Hinckley called, we responded and said we'd love to," said Clark, who took over as president of the Rexburg university in October.

Former dean of the Harvard business school, Clark gave up his tenured position after LDS Church leader President Hinckley asked him to take up the reins of BYU-Idaho. But Clark has another reason for moving to BYU-Idaho — one that he says his East Coast colleagues aren't convinced of just yet.

"It's a wonderful professional opportunity," he said. "That part will become clearer as time goes on."

The combination of church devotion and career focus has drawn more than just Clark away from the Harvard business school. Two of his Harvard colleagues will also be joining BYU-Idaho this summer.

Clark Gilbert will become the assistant vice president of student life at BYU-Idaho, a move that departs from his career as an assistant business professor at Harvard.

The switch may not make a lot of sense to some of his Boston colleagues, but Gilbert said he chose the post because of his work with inner-city youths in Boston. He wants to find ways to expand access to education. Gilbert added that he and his wife felt an "unambiguous" answer to their prayers that they should go to Idaho.

"There's a spirit of consecration on that campus that's really inspiring," he said.

Steven Wheelwright, a Harvard business professor, will also be joining BYU-Idaho as a special assistant to Clark after retiring from Harvard this summer. LDS leaders called Wheelwright to his position as part of a service mission for the church.

Although BYU-Idaho is drawing away some of Harvard's talent, Elder W. Rolfe Kerr , commissioner of the Church Education System, said the new hires are not an attempt to make BYU-Idaho the Harvard of the West. In fact, the Ivy League university had little to do with the hiring choices, he said.

Church leaders had been eyeing all three men for a while, Kerr said, and the timing just happened to work out now for each of them.